Monday, September 15, 2014

September, 2014 by The Numbers, Part 3: A Final Summary of Bad, Bad Economic numbers Created By A Bad, Bad Polticial Class

On a semi-regular basis we do a series under the theme, “By the numbers.” In this series we look at the latest statistics, trends, and facts that are going on in this country, usually focusing on how the American political class, via their ineptness at doing anything right, is constantly screwing up our lives, our economy, and our democracy, based strictly on the reality of the numbers at that time.

I once worked for a boss whose favorite saying was: There is nothing more devastating to an opinion than the correct number.” Politicians do not like to deal with numbers, it messes up their political message and spin as they try to create a different, false reality in our minds. However, the numbers are the numbers and the reality of our lives, numbers devastate opinions.

A famous NFL football coach once said you are only as good as your record. You might think you have a great, talented team with excellent coaching but if you have a losing record, than the reality is that you do not have either a talented team of excellent coaching, the numbers, unlike politicians, do not lie.

More importantly, you cannot expect to resolve an issue or make life better and easier for Americans if you do not have the right, correct numbers to tell us where we are within the reality of those issues. For example, claiming the economy is doing great, even though almost twenty million Americans are still looking for good employment, does not allow you to focus on that twenty million number. The false claim forces you to waste time and resources trying to create the false impression that the economy is doing well. It diverts attention and problem resolving resources and attention to the lie and not reality.

So let’s take a final and third day and go “by the numbers” to see where America’s reality truly is today. Today we will just concentrate on the quite bad and depressing set of economic and job numbers that the Obama administration issued about a week and a half ago and which were summarized in Amy Ridenour's National Center Blog in an article written by David Almasi:

The Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that only 145,000 jobs were created in August.

The number of Americans mired in part-time employment is 7.3 million which was down slightly by 200,000

While the traditional measure of the national unemployment rate did go down slightly to 6.1%, that was mostly due to Americans opting out of looking for a job altogether, a factor not figured into this rate. percent. 

A more accurate reading of unemployment and under employment, the U-6 unemployment rate, is still stuck at a whopping 12%, almost double the "official" unemployment rate. 

The unemployment rate, as measured in the traditional way and equivalent to the 6.1% stated above, for African-Americans remained steady at 11.4%.

The African-American teenage unemployment is still obscenely high, clocking in at 32.8%

The unemployment rate for the Hispanic population fell slightly to 7.5%, almost 23% above the national unemployment rate. 

The labor force participation rate for all Americans continued to drop, years and years after the recession ended, slightly down to 62.8%.

Every month for the last three years, at least 45 million Americans have been enrolled to receive Federal food assistance (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). 

In May 2014, the last month in which the data is known, more than 46 million people received food stamps.

According to recent Census Bureau data, more than a third of Americans are receiving some form of government assistance.

Research from Sentier Research estimates that the median U.S. household income is more than three percent lower now than it was when the recession was declared over in June 2009. 

Median household income is almost five percent lower than it was in December, 2007.

The latest analysis from the Congressional Budget Office estimates the labor force participation rate will continue to drop as a direct result of Obama Care subsidies.

Recent polling estimates that 54% of Americans are disappointed in the performance of the Obama administration on economic matters and almost half, 49%, believe the economy is still in a recession.

Mind boggling bad economic numbers, especially when you consider the following realities:
  • The Obama administration spent over $800 billion in a failed economic stimulus plan that was supposed to get the country back to a 5% unemployment rate years ago.
  • This administration’s and Congress’s economic polices have failed despite record low interest rates for a record length of time.
  • We have been living through a once in a life time domestic energy boom that should have also fueled substantial economic growth but which has not.
Such a pitiful set of economic numbers reinforces the need for at least two steps to be implemented from “Love My Country, Loathe My Government:”
  1. Step 36 would require all politicians in Congress and the White House to take and pass a course on economic theory and policy before taking office. Such training might give them a fighting chance to develop and implement sound economic policies and strategies as opposed to the idiocy they have been doing over the past five or six years, idiocy that has gotten us the sour economic numbers reviewed above.
  2. Step 39 would impose term limits on all Federal politicians, "one and done," since reelecting the same tired and ineffective politicians over and over has not gotten us the economic growth and numbers that should be attainable by a country like the U.S. Ask yourself, how much worse could it get from an economic perspective if we dumped out of office all sitting politicians with a term limit process?
Sad, sad state of economic numbers in place today in this country. We will revisit this theme of “by the numbers” in the near future with the hope that the numbers get better. However, given the numbers we have discussed over the past three days, I would bet that the numbers will get much better in the near future.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w




No comments: