Friday, July 3, 2015

The truth about Obama's economic numbers

So the AP comes out with this story today that the unemployment rate fell to a seven year low at 5.3%. They tell us that this is because 223, 000 jobs were gained during the last month. The White House is hailing this as good economic news, and the AP goes right along with it. Yet when we look at all the numbers we see a different picture.

First of all we must look at the rest of the data, for to get an accurate economic picture we must view it all. Right now, in the U.S. a record 93 million people are no longer in the workforce, and are not counted in the unemployment statistics that are reported by the White House. So, if you take out all these working age people, the unemployment rate is 5.3%.  This is called the U3 unemployment number, and by most accounts it is the least accurate, although best looking, unemployment number.  In essence, reporting this makes Obama look good.

Now, if you add the 93 million to the unemployment number you get the U6 unemployment number, and most economist get somewhere between 10 and 14 percent unemployment rate. However, economist David Stockman estimates that it would be upwards to a 42.9% unemployment rate. Now, could you imagine what would happen if Obama released that unemployment number? Obama's popularity would plummet. So it only makes sense that he release the smallest of the samples.

Investigating the numbers further, 432,000 people lost their jobs last month (I'm referring to June). Now, let's put this in Math 101 form: 223,000 jobs created minus 432,000 jobs lost equals negative 209,000 (-209,000). So now we see what the true damage of Obamanomics had on our nation during the month of June.

Now, here are the numbers as reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: 5.3 unemployment rate, 223,000 jobs created, and 432,000 work force decline. In May the statistics were similar. So if you do the math, the trend of economic collapse is obvious.

There are a lot of reasons why Americans can't find jobs. For one thing, Baby Boomers are not retiring, perhaps because they need healthcare. Baby Boomers cannot afford to retire. High School and College Students are not working because the low paying jobs they used to take either no longer exist or are taken up by low skilled, uneducated immigrants who do not speak English. Either that, or older people who have lost their jobs are taking these jobs, leaving younger Americans with no work.

Because of Obamacare the 40 hour work week is no longer defined as full time work; 30 hours is. This is because most companies limit hours so they don't have to pay for health insurance. So this has forced many Americans to take on two part time jobs, leaving no jobs open for new workers.

In many places minimum wages are so high that places like McDonald's have to hire fewer workers, and this eliminates jobs for high school and college age kids. So, there are a variety of reasons why so many people are not in the work force. This is not to mention the record number of people who live off the government and so they have no incentive to look for work.

So, anyway, the economic numbers do not look so good.  The White House is lying about the economy being good.  

Some, however, believe he has simply redefined the definition of a good economy.  For instance, the Gross Domestic Product is shrinking.  For most of history the GDP has been the number one indicator used by economists to measure how the economy is doing.  The White House no longer wants to use the GDP as an indicator, claiming "it just doesn't show the whole story."  

They don't want to show it because the GDP shows the economic failures of the Obama administration that they don't want you to know about.  You have 93 million no longer in the workforce, an actual unemployment number greater than 10 percent, college graduates with big college loan debts who can only find a job working 30 hours per week.  There is simply no room for the economy to grow, unless you count government jobs. 

Recession has been re-defined as well, because if you considered two consecutive quarters of a declining GDP as a recession, the entire Obama term would have to be considered a recession.  He doesn't want that, so he has re-defined recession by simply not reporting the GDP.  

The economy has been stagnating, sort of like it did during the Jimmy Carter administration.  Still, the Obama administration keeps reporting that we are in a recovery.  

More people are not working than ever before, immigrants are taking all the jobs that college and high school age kids once took, twice as many jobs are lost in a given month than jobs created, full time work is now considered 30 hours, wages have stagnated (are not going up), disposable income has stagnated, and the number of people who have no desire to work because they receive government checks is growing.  

So you have no markers of a growing economy, and yet the White House continues to say that we are in a state of recovery.  Then the Associated Press, instead of doing its own review of the data as I just did, just reports what the White House releases.  The same is true of most of the rest of the media, and so too many people are mislead into thinking the economy is in a state of recovery.  

What the White House wants you to think is that all this doesn't matter.  What matters is that Obama and the democrats are nice.  Democrats have made it so "everyone" can get healthcare.  Democrats have made it so that anyone can get food stamps and other forms of government assistance.  Democrats will give you free cell phones.  Democrats will protect your social security.  Democrats are nice. 

But all this niceness is actually making the country worse. 

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