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The Numbers Lie

December 9, 2011 by  

Rigging the unemployment numbers. There was a lot of pointing with pride last week when the Labor Department announced that unemployment in the United States had fallen from more than 9 percent to 8.6 percent. What the Barack Obama apologists didn’t mention, however, was that the numbers improved not because 120,000 new jobs were created; that would barely move the meter. No, what caused the drop was that 315,000 people stopped looking for work. Heck, if the White House could persuade all of the unemployed to quit applying for jobs, unemployment would fall to 0 percent.

It ain’t working for me. In its report on the joint action by the world’s central banks to bail out Europe (the subject of today’s Straight Talk column), The Wall Street Journal ran this top-of-page-one headline: “Central Banks Move to Calm Fears.” The news didn’t calm any of my fears. Did it calm yours?

The TSA identifies a new terrorist threat. A 17-year-old girl was yanked from airport security last week as she tried to fly home to Jacksonville, Fla., from Virginia. The TSA had detected an ominous threat to her fellow passengers: Her leather purse was decorated with an ornamental pistol. How anyone could see a potential threat in an embossed leather gun is beyond me. But then, as one reporter observed: “Tyranny is stupid, too.”

They put up how many Christmas trees? If you can get anywhere near Asheville, N.C., this holiday season, do yourself a favor and go see the Biltmore House. With 250 rooms, it is the largest privately owned mansion in America. To say it is spectacular is an understatement. George Washington Vanderbilt’s descendants really outdo themselves at Christmas time. The decorations inside include 57 Christmas trees, including a majestic Fraser fir that is 34 feet tall.

–Chip Wood

Filed Under: Chip Shots, Conservative Politics
Chip Wood

is the geopolitical editor of PersonalLiberty.com. He is the founder of Soundview Publications, in Atlanta, where he was also the host of an award-winning radio talk show for many years. He was the publisher of several bestselling books, including Crisis Investing by Doug Casey, None Dare Call It Conspiracy by Gary Allen and Larry Abraham and The War on Gold by Anthony Sutton. Chip is well known on the investment conference circuit where he has served as Master of Ceremonies for FreedomFest, The New Orleans Investment Conference, Sovereign Society, and The Atlanta Investment Conference.

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  • Ram
  • Les

    Figures don’t lie and liars don’t figure. How many Americans today have never worked? How many have collected welfare all of their lives. This should be easy for the federal government to figure out. Take all the people that paid taxes every year and subtract from the total population of the country. Do that across several years and you can see the actual labor trend and not the lies told by any administration.

    The number 57 comes from the number of islamic countries/territories in the world.

  • simian pete

    If you are unemployed for more than 99 weeks, COngress saids “screw you !” They think the unemployed 99′ers are scum. Why ? Well one reason is the selfish unemployed 99′ers aren’t paying enough income taxes !!! HA HA HA !!!

    Ron Paul for President. I know he probably won’t extend unemployment ! But the thought of future President Paul VETO on Congress spending money makes me very happy ! HA HA HA !
    Won’t those crony capitalist wail ! Say goodbye to foreign aid !!
    HA HA HA !
    ROn Paul for President ! Screw Congress!!!

  • duaner

    Hey Steve I am in the same boat. Ain’t life grand!! I was lucky enough to be close to early retirement age. I was also lucky enough to find a part time job in my old hometown. Isn’t it interesting that as a self employed person, we pay our taxes, create jobs, and if we are lucky enough ( I was Not) to be able to afford health insurance. Yet when the government took away my ability to earn a living in my chosen profession, I was left out in the cold. A harsh reality set in but for the grace of God and some loving people I would be homeless and starving right now. There is light at the end of the tunnel as long as we follow the concepts of and the good advice found on this blog site. Take care Steve, my prayers will be with you.

  • Steve

    I spent two years unemployed after being selfemployed for 16 years, therefore was not eligible for unemployment and also not eligible to be counted as unemployed, none of the selfemployed who have lost their jobs are counted

  • Lance

    The majority of those who left the workforce were of retirement age. The labor force is shrinking because more people are turning 62 years old than are turning 18 years old. Some of those over 62 years old may have left becuase they thought job prospects were poor, but many left the workforce because of retirement. Ten years ago a senior pentagon official predicted that the USA would have to reinstitute the draft because of the shrinking labor force due to the decline inbirth rates in the 1990s. He was right on the deomgrapics but underestimated imigration.

  • blevit

    What in the world would give anyone knowing the amount of personal debt that ALL elected polititions owe to HUGE monied organization put out to get them,and others,elected HAVE to bow to these crooks to pay back. Wake up,these lying, cheating, two faced polititions once selling out to get on this gravy train in office only get worce, to selling the country they swore to protect! My other question is why, we the people that suffer for these elected,indifferant bunch of thieves, totally insulated from everything we endure would have any reason to change? Every two to four years all of these NOW rich, filthy lyers have to again tell us more lies (anything we want to hear)for re-election,it starts all over. The only way to get these bloated liers attention is to VOTE them OUT of of this perpetual selling our country to the wants of of gready, non caring,mostly foreign based bloodsuckers. Never forget, nor be swayed by the idea that one party is in any way better than the other,as,one allways needs the other to blame for their ineptitude,thievery.

    VOTE THE BUMS OUT!

  • Vigilant

    “The TSA had detected an ominous threat to her fellow passengers: Her leather purse was decorated with an ornamental pistol. How anyone could see a potential threat in an embossed leather gun is beyond me.”

    This isn’t new. A friend of mine was traveling out of Boston Logan about ten years ago. He had a keychain at the end of which was a tiny replica of a pistol, no larger than a thumbnail. These idiots actually called the pilot to scrutinize the charm, and it ended up that he had to relinquish it before they would let him board the flight. Unbelievable.

    • alex

      WITH THIS BUNCH OF IDIOTS ANY THING IS BELIEVABLE

    • David

      Because the TSA has not succeeded in thwarting any REAL threats at the check-in line, they must justify their existence by deterring PERCIEVED threats…like the 90 year old woman in the wheel chair or the two year old in diapers. Remember that this game is not about the REALITY of protecting passengers, it is about the PERCEPTION that the passengers are protected.

    • Wu Ming Ren

      I am a life member of the VFW (Flying Tigers Post 9957, Taipei, Taiwan), and my membership card is made of aluminum. TSA declared it a dangerous weapon and attempted to take it from me when I was boarding a flight for Taiwan. I would not relinquish it, as to do so would mean I could not prove membership when visiting the post cantina upon arrival. The airline ground crew intervened and convinced the TSA to allow the pilot to carry it for me until we reached Taiwan. He gave it back to me once we were over international waters.

  • tyrdofnnsns

    SOONER WILL A CAMEL PASS THROUGH THE EYE OF A NEEDLE, THAN AN HONEST MAN BE ELECTED TO AN OFFICE… ALSO: THE MORE NUMEROUS THE LAWS, THE MORE CORRUPT THE STATE!
    These words from our country’s Founding Fathers should be remembered, and also considered in the dim, and discomforting future that This Great Nation is faced with today. Especially considering the action, and direction that those who have siezed control of Her have chosen to direct Hers, and Our fate… Lord have mercy, indeed…

  • Vigilant

    The first topic is a rehash of what was already reported by PLND a week ago today ( http://www.personalliberty.com/news/unemployment-rate-drops-to-8-6-percent-in-november-800654857/ ).

    My comment then, as now, is as follows:

    ““The AP reported that a key reason the rate dropped by such a sharp margin was that 315,000 people had given up looking for work and were no longer counted as unemployed.”

    Only a propagandist and Orwellian Big Brother would adjust statistics to claim that the unemployment rate decreased due to….not counting people who are still unemployed!

    Bloomberg as the correct take on it (see http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-02/number-of-jobless-without-benefits-grows-the-ticker.html ) as follows:

    “In November, the number of unemployed (12.6 million) plus those out of the labor force who wanted a job (6.2 million) added up to a seasonally unadjusted 18.8 million, down from 20.1 million a year earlier. That leaves 12 million people (18.8 million minus the 6.8 million getting benefits) out of work and receiving no benefits in November, up nearly 700,000 from the previous year.”

    As with the Consumer Price Index, BLS is painting lipstick on a pig.

  • Terry Eacker

    Does anyone really think that because a person exhausts their unemployment benefits, they have stopped looking for work? It really drives me nuts every time I hear that expression.

    • American Patriot

      So true Terry.
      They only count those who are currently drawing unemployment benefits.
      If ones benefits have expired they are no longer counted.
      The numbers don’t reflect the true unemployment rate today.
      If ALL unemployed were counted the number would be much closer to 20% than 9%.
      Currently my wife and I aren’t employed and we’re not counted as being unemployed because our benefits expired long ago.

      No longer looking for work means No longer drawing unemployment benefits.
      Tell it like it is. The true unemployment rate is around 20% or more.

    • http://www.lp.org Jerome Bigge

      After their unemployment runs out, they are no longer counted because the way we measure unemployment is based upon the number receiving unemployment checks. If we went by the method used during the Great Depression, where they did a statistical study based on numbers of people who would be in the labor force if they could find a job, our own figures would be well up in the double digit range. At least 50% higher than the figures given by the Obama administration. So 8.6% actually translates out to at least 12.9%, or 13% in rounded off numbers. However if you look at this from the basis of how long have people been unemployed, our unemployment figures are the worst they have ever been since the Great Depression! Short term unemployment reached double digit levels during Ronald Reagan’s first term, but those laid off usually found a new job within six months. Not true today, I understand, since about 50% of those whose unemployment checks ran out are still unemployed today! This is actually the worst it has ever been since the Great Depression…

      • http://www.lp.org Jerome Bigge

        Let me add this to the above: Some parts of the country are worse off than others. Some are better off. Here in Michigan the true level of unemployment is probably 15% or more. As I said before, the worst economy we’ve had since before WW2. And at least FDR tried to do something about it! Obama just played around with his health care reform while the economy was collapsing around him. We were even better off with George Bush!

  • http://www.easyinvest.co.za peter

    Statistics, polls and balance sheets are all manipulable. There are less insolvencies this year than last year comes to mind – no kidding!
    If insolvencies kept going up there would be no businesse left very soon. If that were indicated as a percentage of what were remaining it would make more sense. There were 10 green bottles standing on the wall etc………………..

  • http://deleted Claire

    WTH?? They all lie. The present government and all past administrations. This is nothing new. And it will continue regardless of who is elected.

    • Charlie

      I agree. But I think we can still change that in 2012; we will have to choose the right people. They MUST have shown honesty and consistency in being forthright, and, in my opinion, not have a background that betrays what they espouse. I think it will take a lot of voter investigation into the candidate that they are considering. I don’t really put much stock in what the media says or does. Just sayin’.

    • Ron>

      “An honest man was never elected by immoral constituents…”
      Ron Hoffman

  • s c

    This is one of those split topic articles, Chip, and here are the correct responses. First, yes, the numbers lie. Obummer lies. Biden Lies. Holder lies. The whole frickin’ administration LIES.
    Second, Bernanke can’t bail out himself, let alone try to help bail out out another hemisphere. Who’s next? ASIA?
    Third, every time I go to an airport, I carry a small M1A1 Abrams (toy) tank in one pocket and a B52 (toy) in another pocket. It drives the TSA twits crazy.
    Fourth, until I saw ’57 trees,’ the last paragraph
    didn’t make any sense. Chip, you probably realize that some book publishers are going bonkers trying to decide whether to “update” every geography textbook to include the new “fact” that America now has 57 states instead of 50.
    I used to be a whiz at geography, and even I didn’t know we had added another seven states. So, can anyone tell me what the names of those states are and where they’re located? A case of premium beer says I’m right and Obummer is wrong.

    • Jeep

      sc, we’re not bailing out Asia next. After all, we have to have someone to borrow money from!

    • alex

      THE NUMBER IS 58 HE HAD BEEN IN 57 AND HAD ONE MORE TO GO

    • Wu Ming Ren

      Those other states would be: unaware, unconscious, obtuse, detached, aloof, unreceptive, negligent, and vindictive.

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