狗急跳墙准备打仗了：美国实际失业率已达22%

Friday’s unemployment report from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics is anything but a
green shoot. The official U-3 unemployment number is 10.2%. The broader and more
comprehensive official unemployment number, the U-6, is at 17.5%. The U-6 counts all the
people that want a job but gave up, all the people with part-time jobs that want a full-time job,
and all the people who dropped off unemployment benefits because their unemployment
benefits ran out. John Williams at Shadowstats.com suggests that real unemployment is
actually running at 22%, which, by our calculation, is approaching Great Depression
unemployment numbers.
The unemployment report may come as a surprise to those who have been following the
Obama administration and mainstream economists like Paul Krugman. Here are some
choice quotes from those we’ve entrusted with our economy:
President Obama (February 13, 2009):
"That’s a story I’m confident will be repeated at companies across the
country — companies that are currently struggling to borrow money selling
their products, struggling to make payroll, but could find themselves in a
different position when we start implementing the plan,” Obama said.
“Rather than downsizing, they may be able to start growing again. Rather
than cutting jobs, they may be able to create them again.”
David Axelrod, Senior Adviser to President Obama on whether the stimulus plan will keep
unemployment from reaching 10 percent (February 15, 2009):
That’s our hope – that’s our hope. There’s no doubt that without it, that’s
where we were looking: double-digit unemployment. That’s what we’re
trying to forestall.
Nobel Prize Recipient and Economist Paul Krugman on the benefits of trillion dollar deficit
spending spending (January 21, 2009):
I’m looking for the unemployment rate. I want to see the unemployment rate
stay safely below 10 percent, which is by no means a foregone conclusion.
And I want to see it coming down notably next year.
Larry Summers, Lead Economic Adviser to President Obama (January 18, 2009):
I don’t think so. I think while we’re going to see some substantial job losses,
frankly what is important about the president’s program here is that it is
going to contain what would otherwise be just a vicious cycle, people spend
less, therefore they earn less. We’re going to contain this problem.
Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve testifying before Congress’s joint economic
committee (May 5, 2009):
Currently, we don’t think it will get to 10 percent. Our current number is
somewhere in the 9s.
So far, no good. The policies recommended by Messers Krugman, Axelrod, Bernanke and
Summers seem to be having the opposite of the intended effect. Tens of thousands continue
to lose jobs, credit continues to contract, spending continues to contract, and personal credit
& mortgage delinquencies are on the rise.
Luckily, America has a President in office who is changing the way Washington works from
the inside out and is holding strong to the commitment he made in April of 2008.
Presidential Candidate Barack Obama (April 3, 2008):
Today’s job news is the latest indicator of how badly America needs
fundamental change from Bush-McCain policies that have been devastating
for working families and catastrophic for our economy….
Our economy is struggling because the American people are struggling, and
simply bailing out investment banks on Wall Street will not help Main Street.
Thank goodness that there’s at least one elected official in Washington that doesn’t believe
in bailing out investment banks on Wall Street to help Main Street!
Recent developments in the economy suggest that the recession is over, recovery has
started and for the consumer, it’s business as usual throughout America’s shopping malls.
All sarcasm aside, we ask our readers to consider recent statements from the public and
private sector in regards to the economy. Are things really getting better? Given what we’ve
been told so far, is it prudent to put our trust into the very officials who have gotten us to
where we are today?