Sixty Minutes Segment on Unemployment in Silicon Valley

Hat tip:  the Other McCain

Things are really rough in California.  Yes, let's vote for more Democrats!!!  Not.  At least I still have a roof over my head, for a few more months, anyway.  My last mortgage payment was in June. This is no recession...it is a depression, and we need to stop kidding ourselves.

Jobs Declined Again in November But Unemployment Rate Improves? That Does Not Compute.

The jobs data was released today from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  It shows that the economy lost "only" 11,000 jobs in November but the unemployment rate improved from 10.2% to only 10%.

How can the unemployment rate improve while jobs are still being lost?  I assume that the 11,000 jobs lost is a net figure, i.e. jobs lost minus jobs gained.  Only a positive change in net jobs could decrease the unemployment percentage.  This does not compute.

I suspect the jobs data does not reflect the number of job seekers who have given up looking, in which case the jobs report is overly optimistic.

Republicans were not impressed with the reported results:

"After yet another month of job losses, it's clear that one question President Obama is sure to get on his 'listening tour' is: 'Where are the jobs'?" says House Minority Leader John Boehner, in a statement.

While the Republican from Ohio says the decrease in the unemployment rate is encouraging, he says "anyone who views today's report as cause for celebration is out of touch with the American people, especially when Washington Democrats' policies – whether it's a government takeover of health care, a national energy tax, or 'card check' – are already costing jobs and will pile even more debt on our kids and grandkids."

Ugh, the Recession Just Got Personal

On Friday I was laid off from my job; I expected it sooner or later if the economy didn't improve.  So now I am back in the hunt for work, at a time when work is scarce.  Strangely enough, my employer asked me to stay on for another few weeks to help with the external audit, but as an independent contractor rather than an employee, and at a rate that represents a substantial raise.  Are they stupid or what?

In any case, it gives me maybe another month to look for work but I have to start immediately.  So today that's what I'll be doing.  Looking for work in the bluest state in the Union, the most socialized, the most heavily taxed, and one of the most economically depressed.  

Carla Bruni: "Let Them Eat Cake!"

STOGIE DOES HISTORY

Shades of Marie Antoinette!  History repeats itself:  Carla Bruni, First Lady of France, must go to Paris in disguise since the recession has hit France.  French aristocrats during the French Revolution had to do the same thing, for their own protection.  And so, dear reader, it is time for another segment of Stogie Does History.

Actually, Marie Antoinette got a bum rap.  She never said of the starving peasantry, "Let them eat cake."  It seems they had a liberal press in those days, too.

What she did say was, "Peasantry?  What's that?"

The angry peasants of Paris then descended on the Palace of Versailles, the Queen's digs, with pitchforks and lighted torches where they began yelling and screaming outside the walls. A French servant in powdered wig and red silk knee pants dutifully reported the disturbance to the Queen:  "Serf's up!"

Shortly thereafter, Queen Marie was relocated to a nice apartment in Paris near the Place de la Concorde, renamed Place de la Revolution, where she would eventually attend a public event in her honor.  Not really understanding what the doings were all about, she reportedly said, "a little off the top, please."

Okay, so she wasn't Ronald Reagan.  Those in power are always blamed for recessions whether they caused them or not.  Marie actually had quite a stimulus plan in place for France's powdered wig and silk gown industries.  But the ungrateful peasantry refused to give it time to work.

And so, dear reader, let us learn from the lessons of history.  Queen Michelle Antoinette and King Obama must be given time for the stimulus plan to work.  Say a week or so.  Then we begin waxing our pitchforks and lighting our torches.