Monday, October 8, 2012

Crazy conspiracies about the latest job numbers

You've not doubt by now heard of the regressive conspiracy theory that the latest unemployment rate of 7.8% was due to cooked books on the part of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). And likely the President is in on the conspiracy, somehow forcing the BLS to comply with the cook. This was the outrageous claim of Jack Walsh, former chairman of General Electric, and quickly reverberated throughout  the entire regressive echo chamber.

Paul Krugman examines this nonsense and notes that it could just be a normal short-term fluctuation in how the BLS does statistics. However upon further examination there is an undoubted long-term trend of increasing employment. Over the past year an average of 150,000 jobs have been added per month. One hears the spin that this isn't keeping up with the overall growth in the work force and hence we are not gaining ground. But Krugman shows that under current conditions the job force is only growing at about a rate of 90,000 per month  due to an aging population leaving the work force.Hence the actual progress.

He's not though saying the employment numbers are great, just that they are in fact improving slowly. And that fact is the stick in the regressive craw that they just cannot abide. Since they cannot accept facts they must go into such dysfunctional denial as to create bizarre government conspiracy theories to maintain their Bullshit Mountain, as Stewart calls it.

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