2+2=3 As long as it looks good

    I love math, to be more precise I love statistics and percentage equations.  It is so easy to manipulate the input values to arrive at the outcome you desire.  Mathematically I can put just about any U.S. citizen into the working poor category or I could put the same citizen into the upper 1% wage earner category.  It all depends on what I want the numbers to tell you.

    President Obama gave a speech a couple of weeks back that really caught my attention (I heard a percentage mentioned).  He said “The U.S. uses 20% of the worlds produced energy but only holds 2% of the worlds energy supply”.  His numbers were accurate (at least I could make an equation that arrives at 20% and 2%) but the wording he surrounded the numbers with were inaccurate.  In some circles it's estimated the U.S. could control (or holds) up to 48% of the available energy resources when you count untapped oil, natural gas, coal, geothermal, hydro and nuclear power production capabilities along with a few exotic forms of energy production.  I’m sure what he meant to say was currently produces instead of holds.  He wouldn’t intently manipulate numbers or wording to arrive at a desired outcome… Would he?

    A conservative estimate according to the Institute for Energy Research, the U. S. has access to 1.4 trillion barrels of technically recoverable oil using current drilling and extraction methods. That could be enough oil to meet our needs for the next two hundred plus years without any imports.  The only reason we are not using these resources is because we have placed an embargo on ourselves… We could lift the embargo just as easyJ      

    Energy reserves isn’t even what started me on writing this post, it just kind of floated to the top as I started.  What I really want to get into is the unemployment rate, specifically the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) U-3 numbers.  The BLS actually tracks four categories dealing with unemployment, U-3 (the official unemployment rate), U-4, U-5 and U-6.  Each category becomes a bit more inclusive as you progress.

U-3:  Represents the number of people actively seeking employment divided by the total active work force.    Last report 8.1% (but always revised up after getting all the data).    

U-4:  Is U-3 plus “Discouraged Workers”, workers that have recently given up looking for work thinking there aren’t any jobs available for them. The rate climbs to 8.9%

U-5:  Take U-4 and add people who indicate they are available for employment and may have looked for a job in the past year but not the last four weeks.  Unemployment rate is now 9.9%

U-6:  Finally take U-5 add persons who took a part-time jobs being unable to find full-time employment.  The unemployment rate jumps to a staggering 15.1%.  Think about it this way, a laid off assembly line worker takes a part-time job at the local quick stop store making $7.50 an hour (down from $22.50) are they really employed? NO, they’re being an adult, doing what they can to try and make ends meet but they’re not what could be considered gainfully employed.

BLS U-3 Official Unemployment Rate, The bureau almost hit the nail on the head, had they only dropped the L from their initials. 

November 23, 2009 Quote from President Obama “I will not rest until businesses are investing again and businesses are hiring again and people have work again”.

    Two and a half years later (3+ years into his term), the nation is $3.92 trillion deeper in debt and another estimated $1 trillion on the way (if you’re interested that’s approximately $70,000 of additional debt saddled on a family of four).  An unemployment rate of between 8.1 to 15.1% depending on the category used (promised to not go over 7%).  Finally something that not often reported on.  Using the BLS monthly job gain/loss numbers from Jan. 2008 thru Apr. 2012 and a simple +/- column equation, our country has suffered an overall loss of 3.5 million jobs under the Obama administration. That’s 3.5 million employees not actively producing in our economy.  1.8 million of the lost jobs were in manufacturing.  Conservatively averaged out let’s say each of the 3.5M would have a $2,000 tax liability, that’s a loss of 7+ billion dollars in revenues each year.  Total privet sector jobs on 01/2008 was113.6 million by 04/2012 that total was down to 110.1 million.  By comparison the federal government has grown from 2.7 million employees to 2.8 million during the same time.  Like I said at the beginning, I can make the numbers say any thing I want, so I invite you to stop by http://www.bls.gov/webapps/legacy/cesbtab1.htm.  Look the data over for yourself and come to your own conclusion. No spit, No polish, the numbers are what the numbers are.

Again…             

“I will not rest until businesses are investing again and businesses are hiring again and people have work again”.

Dude, take a break… We can’t afford much more of you not resting.

Yes, I just Duded the President of the United States of America.  I’m a bad boyJ

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Have A Great Day

The TOMCAT