Peter Bromberg's UnBlog

People are often confused with biased media reports that "unemployment" is going down, and that's supposedly a good thing. There's much more to the picture - but you'll never hear it from the media. The number of jobs needed per month to keep up with population growth depends on the rate of population growth, and the labor participation rate. CBO estimates show we need 260,000 new jobs per month just to keep pace with population growth (new Americans entering the labor force). It would take 187,000 jobs added per month over the next year to hold the unemployment rate steady if the participation rate rises to 64.6%. If the participation rate stays steady, it will only take 95,000 jobs added per month. If the economy does start adding more jobs per month, one would expect more people will then join the labor force - keeping the unemployment rate elevated. Of course more people could give up, and the labor force participation rate could fal...

The egalitarianism and welfarism of modern liberal government are incompatible with the facts of human nature and the human condition. But the rise to power of the liberal agenda has resulted from the fact that the people of western societies have irrationally demanded that governments take care of them and manage their lives -- instead of protecting their property rights. The liberal agenda gratifies various types of pathological dependency; augments primitive feelings of envy and inferiority; reinforces paranoid perceptions of victimization; implements manic delusions of grandeur; exploits government authority for power, domination and revenge; and satisfies infantile claims to entitlement, indulgence and compensation. Modern liberalism rejects, to one degree or another, the competence and sovereignty of the common man and subordinates him to the will of governments run by liberal elites. The modern liberal reveals his true character, including his madness, in what he va...

We get a lot of confusing information from the media. One important figure that consistently gets under-reported is the Labor Force Participation Rate . This is the percentage of working-age persons in an economy who: Are employed, or Are unemployed but looking for a job Typically "working-age persons" is defined as people between the ages of 16-64. People in those age groups who are not counted as participating in the labor force are typically students, homemakers, and persons under the age of 64 who are retired. The Labor Force Participation Rate is currently at a 30 year low. We just had the largest absolute jump in 'Persons Not In Labor Force' on record...and biggest percentage jump in 30 years: When the Labor Force Participation Rate starts going back up, and unemployment rate goes down, then you have a real economic recovery. Right now we aren't even adding enough new jobs each month to keep up with population growth. The numb...