"The Economic "Recovery" Isn't So Great" - January 29, 2015; http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=25306&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DPD [AS I SEE IT: Question: Why are fewer and fewer people each year tuning in to the President's State of the Union message since Obama took office? Answer: They are tired of trying to know whether to believe anything he says. This article and the excerpt from the one below gives evidence why THE TRUTH about our economy - despite what the President said - is that it's not doing that well. Surprise? - Stan]
Is America in recovery? President Obama called the State of the Union "strong" during his address last week, but Stephen Moore, economist at the Heritage Foundation, says that, despite some improvement, the economy is still struggling:
America has not seen an economic recovery as slow as today's in the last five decades. Had America's economy improved at the same rate as an average recovery, American families would have $10,000 more in income, on average.
*Median household income is $1,500 below what it was when the recession ended -- pay raises are not keeping up with inflation.
*Business creation in the United States in 2013 was at its lowest rate since 2001.
*Just 34 percent of Americans believe their children will be better off than they are now.
The national debt has risen from $11 trillion to over $18 trillion under President Obama's watch.
When you take into account the people who have given up looking for work, Moore says the unemployment rate is closer to 10 percent.
Children in single-mother homes are three times more likely to live in poverty than children in two-parent homes. More than 25 percent of children live in single-parent households today, up from 12 percent in 1970.
And despite President Obama's focus on income inequality, Moore says that inequality has actually gone up under President Obama, rising during each year of his first term in office.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
Source: Stephen Moore, "Obama's illusory economic recovery," Washington Times, January 25, 2015.
"GALLUP: Yeah, That 5.6% Unemployment Figure Is A Lie" - Matt Vespa | Feb 04, 2015; http://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2015/02/04/gallup-yeah-that-56-unemployment-figure-is-a-lie-n1952432?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad=
"...Reports will show the unemployment rate is at 5.6 percent, but it’s hardly worth celebrating about once it’s all broken down:
If you, a family member or anyone is unemployed and has subsequently given up on finding a job -- if you are so hopelessly out of work that you've stopped looking over the past four weeks -- the Department of Labor doesn't count you as unemployed. That's right. While you are as unemployed as one can possibly be, and tragically may never find work again, you are not counted in the figure we see relentlessly in the news -- currently 5.6%. Right now, as many as 30 million Americans are either out of work or severely underemployed. Trust me, the vast majority of them aren't throwing parties to toast "falling" unemployment.
There's another reason why the official rate is misleading. Say you're an out-of-work engineer or healthcare worker or construction worker or retail manager: If you perform a minimum of one hour of work in a week and are paid at least $20 -- maybe someone pays you to mow their lawn -- you're not officially counted as unemployed in the much-reported 5.6%. Few Americans know this.
Yet another figure of importance that doesn't get much press: those working part time but wanting full-time work. If you have a degree in chemistry or math and are working 10 hours part time because it is all you can find -- in other words, you are severely underemployed -- the government doesn't count you in the 5.6%. Few Americans know this.
There's no other way to say this. The official unemployment rate, which cruelly overlooks the suffering of the long-term and often permanently unemployed as well as the depressingly underemployed, amounts to a Big Lie.…
Gallup defines a good job as 30+ hours per week for an organization that provides a regular paycheck. Right now, the U.S. is delivering at a staggeringly low rate of 44%, which is the number of full-time jobs as a percent of the adult population, 18 years and older. We need that to be 50% and a bare minimum of 10 million new, good jobs to replenish America's middle class..."
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
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