The gradual decline in the unemployment rate over the past 4 years does not reflect rising prosperity.  It is a statistical deception, due entirely to a shrinking labor force. The Labor Department’s Jobs report for the month of April once again called attention to the alarming drop in what statisticians call the “labor force participation [...]

President Obama roared into office vowing to “fundamentally transform America.”  The transformation has not been kind to middle class workers. The Labor Department just published another new normal – miserable – jobs report.  The headline, that in March unemployment ticked down from 7.7%, to 7.6%, was, once again, an illusion that masked the real news.  [...]

The latest Obama budget crisis is the “sequester,” an idea he came up with in the summer of 2011 that was intended to delay action on the government’s ballooning debt until after the election.  He is now leading a political and media campaign to pressure Congress to resend it. As the chart to the right [...]

The labor Department reported the unemployment rate ticked up from 7.8% to 7.9% in January.  Most of the media marched in lockstep with the White House, emphasizing the other headline statistic, 157,000 jobs created in January.  While not enough to keep up with population growth that number was, as the loyal reporters chanted, “moving in [...]

Another month of anemic job growth as the weakest post-recession job market ever recorded grinds on. Employers added 157,000 jobs in January, fewer than needed to keep up with growth in the working age population and replace the jobs lost during the recession.   The unemployment rate ticked up from 7.8% to 7.9% and has hovered [...]

President Obama decided that New Years Eve, as the Senate was considering the fiscal cliff bill, would be a good time to mock Republican voters and the Representatives they elected.  So he organized a campaign style rally complete with a cheering audience of White House staffers.  He claimed the purpose of this media event was [...]

The Obama Administration and its media friends proclaim good news without disclosing that it masks bad news. “The Employment Emergency is Over,” announced Reuters News Service when the December Jobs report was published.  The White House bragged: …the unemployment rate declined from 7.9 percent in October to 7.7 percent in November, the lowest since December 2008. But it [...]

At his news conference Wednesday President Obama insisted on tax increases for “the wealthy” a strategy that directly targets small and medium sized businesses that are most likely to create jobs.  He was reminded by a reporter that he had agreed in 2010 to give up fighting for tax hikes and keep all the Bush [...]

Measured by President Obama’s own criteria, his economic initiatives failed.  The November jobs report was released Friday.  The unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 7.9%.  Compared with the President’s predictions and promises this number represents massive failure. As Barack Obama assumed office in January 2009 America was suffering from a severe recession.  Rahm Emanuel, his [...]

President Obama’s reelection campaign was based almost entirely on allegations that Mitt Romney was morally disqualified for office because he was “for the rich” while Obama was “for the little guy and his family.”  But since the first day of the Obama Administration it has been “the little guy” who needs employment, and his family, [...]