Allen L Roland

The current unemployment rate remains the worse since the great Depression and will worsen. The broader measure of unemployment is 17% ~ which includes discouraged workers who have not found a job in six months as well as part time workers who want full time work. The reported gain of 151,000 payroll jobs in October was a big lie and obviously politically motivated whereas the perception of a recovery becomes far more important than the harsh reality of a deepening depression:

So much for the promise of truth and transparency with the Obama administration and nowhere is this more apparent than the recently released BLS unemployment figures.

First the truth ~ the Bureau of Labor Statistics ( BLS ) reveals that in October the number of persons jobless for a year or more rose from 645,000 in the second quarter of 2007 to 4.5 million in the second quarter of 2010. The group’s share of total unemployment jumped from 9.5 percent to a record high of 30.9 percent.

In the second quarter of 2010, the share of the labor force unemployed for a year or longer reached a record high. Men and persons aged 25 and older were somewhat overrepresented among those jobless for a year or more.

Against these bleak unemployment figures ~ we have the Obama administration announcing a gain of 151,000 payroll jobs in October as evidence of a slow economic recovery. But are these figures real or another big lie?

I’m afraid they are not real and Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration, reveals this disinformation in his recent article in ICH entitled Big Lies, Little Lies.

Excerpt: “After examining the government’s report, statistician John Williams (shadowstats.com) reported that the jobs were “phantom jobs” created by “concurrent seasonal factor adjustments.” In other words, the 151,000 jobs cannot be found in the unadjusted underlying data. The jobs were the product of seasonal adjustments concocted by the BLS. As usual, the financial press did no investigation and simply reported the number handed to the media by the government.

The relevant information, the information that you need to know, is that the level of payroll employment today is below the level of 10 years ago. A smaller number of Americans are employed right now than were employed a decade ago.

As of October 2010, payroll jobs purportedly have increased by 874,000, an insufficient amount to keep up with labor force growth. However, John Williams reports that 874,000 is an overestimate of jobs as a result of the faulty “birth-death model,” which overestimates new business start-ups during recessions and underestimates business failures. Williams says that the next benchmark revision due out next February will show a reduction in current employment by almost 600,000 jobs. This assumes, of course, that the BLS does not gimmick the benchmark revision. If Williams is correct, it is more evidence that the hyped recovery is non-existent.”

Robert’s ends his article with this truth and conclusion ~ “ Another fact that is seldom, if ever, reported, is that the payroll jobs data reports the number of jobs, not the number of people with jobs. Some people hold two jobs; thus, the payroll report does not give the number of employed people.
The BLS household survey measures the number of people with jobs. The same October that reported 151,000 new payroll jobs reported, according to the household survey, a loss of 330,000 jobs. The American working class has been destroyed. The American middle class is in its final stages of destruction. Soon the bottom rungs of the rich themselves will be destroyed.”

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26770.htm

And now we have the Fed’s recently announced $600 billion long term bond-purchasing program which is hoped will reduce interest rates enough to effect unemployment. Paul Krugman writes that “Bernanke is getting the Obama treatment and also making the Obama response” in that he is facing intense right wing pressure and is already scaling back his purchase plans which almost guarantees they’ll fail. Krugman correctly points out who really pays the price for this lack of boldness ~ “ the almost 15 million unemployed American workers, half of whom have been jobless for 21 weeks or more, will pay the price, as the economic slump goes on and on.”

The first step on the path to recovery and a shift in consciousness is always the truth and transparency ~ two values that are still apparently lost on Congress as well as an Obama administration that seemingly does not trust the American people and a main stream press that parrots the same untruths.

If our leaders do not trust us with the truth than we must demand it ~ for trust is a two way street as Bruce Montague once correctly wrote ~ "Trust is a two way street. If your government does not trust you, how can you trust your government?"

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Allen L Roland
http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/big-lie-regarding-economic-recovery.html

http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com ) Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net Weblog: http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com Website: www.allenroland.com ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY