The Race Card

Laughter is good for the soul.  Our news would be hilarious if it weren’t so painfully true!

Incidents of social insanity have reached epidemic proportions to the point where it’s impossible to keep up with them.  They are literally consuming and destroying our society.  Some examples of our social insanity follow:

We hear the race card played in just about any situation when all other defense fails for ill-begotten political solutions. This is a great commentary about REAL RACISM in America.

Back to Social Insanities #2 list

All is not as it looks!

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Jobs, jobs, jobs…

Before casting your vote on Tuesday, please consider the following:  The unemployment figures used as a barometer of economic health are unreliable.

“Obama’s Layoff Bomb” cites a series of recent “mass layoff actions” directly related to Obama’s economic policies. You won’t hear about these in the mainstream news media. “Mass layoff actions” are the sign of a sick economy, not a healthy one.

Bernanke Warns of “Massive Fiscal Cliff”

Although the economy and consumer confidence appear to be slowly improving, all is not as it looks.  The Fed Chairman warned that the country is facing a double whammy hit to the economy in January 2013 that could be quite disastrous.

“Under current law, on Jan. 1, 2013, there’s going to be a massive fiscal cliff of large spending cuts and tax increases,” Bernanke told the House Financial Services Committee.  Some liberal economists believe this combination will cut our GDP growth by 2/3.  Conservative economists are warning of even more drastic results.
http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/801-economy/213351-fed-boss-warns-of-massive-fiscal-cliff
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Disability?

Has our business environment grown dramatically more dangerous during the recession?  Are more people becoming disabled because the workplace is less safe during the recession?  Or are people gaming the system and moving from unemployment to Social Security Disability when unemployment benefits run out?

Some have proposed that due to a bad economy, many have gone on to obtain Social Security Disability benefits once their unemployment benefits ran out during the last few years.  Looking at the statistics, one could conclude that was indeed the case – although the statistics are not absolutely conclusive:

• The number of monthly applications for Social Security Disability benefits jumped from about 180,000 per month in 2008 to about 245,000 per month in 2011.  Most of the increase occurred from 2009 to 2011, representing a sharp uptick in growth.
• The number of monthly awards also increased noticeably, but not as dramatically, from about 70,000 in 2008 to 90,000 in 2011.  In contrast, the number of awards was constant at 50,000 per month from 1993 through 2001; then it rose gradually in seven years to 70,000 by 2008.  So one could conclude that the increase subsequent to 2008 was unusually high.
• The number of people on Social Security Disability has been increasing linearly from 3,500,000 in 1993 to 8,200,000 in 2011.  There is no unusual spike apparent from 2008 on.

It appears that some have tried to take advantage of the system.  Decide for yourself:
http://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/dibGraphs.html

Cooking the Books?

Summary

The reported 8.3% unemployment figure for January 2012 could be as high as 15.4%, based on the Government’s own numbers.

The source data used to calculate unemployment is subjectively derived, although it is clothed in a veneer of objectivity.  As such the data collection process could be easily manipulated for political purposes without notice.  There is no indication it was manipulated, however.

Total workforce estimates are not verifiable and in fact disagree by about 12% depending on methodology; the inconsistencies are not readily reconciled.

Published BLS analytical results are internally inconsistent between tables and sometimes within tables themselves, indicating a lack of rigor in analysis and/or presentation.  As such the results could be easily manipulated for political purposes without notice.  There is no indication it was manipulated, however.