THE BIG LIE REGARDING ECONOMIC RECOVERY

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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 : Allen L Roland

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?"

Allen L Roland

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

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is also available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )

Weblog: http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com
Website: www.allenroland.com
ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY

OBAMANOMICS / RUNNING ON EMPTY

Let's face it, Obamanomics is all style with very little if any substance ~ to the extent that the White House has no idea of the mistrust and anger that it has generated with its misleading cheerleading of an economic recovery that is little more than a mirage: Allen L Roland

I cringe every time I hear President Obama talking about economic recovery when neither he nor any of his 'economic czars' have fully acknowledged that we are in a deepening Depression and that Obamanomics is running on empty. The Obama administration still seems unbelievably committed to a top down recovery where cash flush banks will loosen credit and the housing and credit bubble will inflate again. Guess what ~ it ain't gonna happen !

Here's what's really happening ~ Transnational corporations have made billions by moving 39% of US manufacturing offshore to boost the GDP and employment of foreign countries, such as China, while impoverishing their former American work force. Congress and the corpocracy have welcomed this as the New Global Economy ~ but it has left Main Street unemployed and over extended.

Sales of US previously owned homes plunged 27 percent in July, twice as much as forecast, which is further evidence that foreclosures and limited job growth are depressing the market.
For example, there have been 300,000 foreclosure filings every month for the past 17 months. This year, 1.9 million homes will be lost, down from 2 million last year. In July alone, 92,858 homes were repossessed. These are Depression sized numbers numbers ~ which cannot be covered up with wishful thinking or happy talk !

Let's start with the very real possibility of a permanent housing collapse.

Shamus Cooke, writes in Truthout of that possibility ~ "The recent chaos that erupted when 30,000 people waited hours in the Atlanta, Georgia, heat to receive applications for subsidized housing is a mere symptom of a worsening national problem " and she's absolutely correct.

Excerpt: " The housing market appears to be on a never-ending downward spiral, with the much-discussed "recovery" always around the next corner... The reasons that such a recovery is impossible at the moment should be obvious: millions of people do not have jobs; millions of others work only part time; millions more work full-time but make very little money; and additional millions fear losing their jobs... Under these circumstances, there can be no recovery in the housing market, which will continue to contribute to the broader depression-like economy in the US. "
http://www.truth-out.org/a-permanent-housing-collapse62505

So what we need now are truth tellers as well as concerned citizens who demand truth and transparency ~ for without those two ingredients, a legitimate economic recovery will be impossible.

Americans do not trust their political leaders, including Obama, who are obviously beholden to an out of control corpocracy and military industrial complex. Rasmussen Polls reveal " that only 23 percent of the people in this country believe today's federal government has the consent of the governed ... The major division in this country is no longer between parties but between political elites and the people," Mr. Rasmussen reports.

On that very same subject, here's a must see video of Chris Hedges' one hour talk on HOW CORPORATIONS DESTROYED AMERICAN DEMOCRACY where Hedges explains how an American empire of production became an empire of consumption and how free market capitalism and globalization have economically brought America to its knees.

Hedges uses the exploitation and demise of Michael Jackson as a metaphor for our present society of sound bites and illusions.

Hedges also explains how Bill Clinton led the Democratic Party to the corporate watering trough and how NAFTA was the knife in the heart of the U.S./ working class. It was Clinton and Summers who destroyed the Glass/Steagal Act and put the Democrats in the same bed with the Republicans and Wall Street financial elite.

Now 50 million Americans are in poverty and millions more are near poverty. The corporate state has hijacked our government and the actual unemployment rate is now closer to 20%.

Hedges correctly identifies Obama as a cheerleader for the Oligarchy and our current flight into corporate illusion and that we all must become invisible witnesses for a moral imperative for true change ~ and that no real reform or change is possible with an out of control Military/Industrial complex powered by corporate greed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRQjF1IPgKQ&feature=related

As Susan Cooke correctly states ~ " It will take a mass movement of working people to rearrange the priorities of those in power, or to put different people in power, so that the country's resources are directed to those creating the wealth, or in the most need of it "

It all starts,of course, with truth and transparency from our political leaders. We must mobilize and nonviolently demand it before the mid-term elections or we will eventually run out of fuel.

Theodore Roethke wrote ~ In a dark time, the eye begins to see ~ So let's end our cultural retreat into illusion and demand the truth from our political leaders and effectively harness the corporate state in the process.

Forty seven percent of the voters believe the Federal budget deficit is primarily due to the wars while joblessness continues to climb. The number one concern for a majority of people is the economy. It is the perfect storm for new organizing efforts to end the wars, cut military spending and rebuild our communities.

Peace Action is helping to organize a national march on Washington, October 2, One Nation Working Together. We are calling on the Obama administration and Congress to create jobs and "move the money" from wars and weapons to our communities.

Sign on, get involved and make a difference.

Allen L Roland
http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/obamanomics-running-on-empty.html

This weblog is sustained through donations from people like yourself. Please send check or Money Order to Allen L. Roland, PO Box 1221, Sonoma,CA 95476 Also accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover .

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 mONLY onthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on http://www.conscioustalk.net/

ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY