The World According to Michael

 Don't be fooled by the latest headlines regarding the unemployment numbers.  For the life of me, I can't comprehend why the main stream media outlets constantly twist and skew the actual numbers.  It's as if they are being directed to report things in a certain way by a certain government agency.  But, I'm sure THAT would NEVER happen.  Of course it doesn't help that in the mid 1990's under President Clinton they changed the way they calculated the numbers.

Today BLS released the unemployment numbers and it "reported" that unemployment fell to 9%.  Although, this doesn't include the fact that they don't take into consideration people that cannot collect unemployment anymore.  These people simply "disappear" from the statistics.  It's like magic, true unemployment rises and the statistical number declines.  Talk about some fuzzy math!
A fabulous resource on the actual numbers of unemployed can be found at shadowstats.com.  As you can see on the chart on the left, the real unemployment numbers are pushing 25%.  That is if you calculated the unemployed like they did back in the 1990's.  The government is notorious for fudging the numbers to benefit themselves.  If they don't like the number, then they change the formula.  Handy.

Although the government continues to flood society with fuzzy math and rose colored headlines, they still fall short even in the data that they do report.  For example, the number for persons not in the labor force is at an all time record high.  Although the headlines say that the unemployment rate is falling.  Could it be that these unemployed people are dropping off the radar and not being counted in the headline number?  Yes, of course that is the case.

Zerohedge reports that the real unemployment using the government's phony numbers should be at 12.8%.  "The number just hit 6,643K, a jump of 431K from December, and the highest number in history. These are people that would send the unemployment rate to about 12.8% if they were in the labor force (and, as indicated, looking for a job)."  This is a far cry from the newly reported 9%.

Zerohedge goes onto explain that the Labor force participation is at a 26 year low.  "Those not in the Labor Force has increased from 83.9 million to 86.2 million, or 2.2 million in one year! As for the numerator in the fraction, the number of unemployed, it has plunged from 15 million to 13.9 million in two months!"

When we have a total decline in the labor force combined with the latest government fuzzy math algorithm it's difficult to even decipher the actual number of unemployed people.  One thing we can take away is that the numbers that are being paraded around are nothing more than a dog & pony show.  It smells like one too.