Analysis: Good economic news something of a mirage (AP talking down the economy for Obama)

Analysis: Some good economic news is a mirage masking weakness in national economy

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The unemployment rate drops. Productivity grows. The trade deficit shrinks. Sounds great, right? Not so fast. Borrowing radio broadcaster Paul Harvey's signature saying: let's hear the rest of the story.

Some seemingly good economic numbers can be something of a mirage masking weaknesses in the national economy.

Let's take the unemployment rate, which dipped to 5 percent in April, from 5.1 percent in March. A closer look reveals that the decline in unemployment is not as good as it looks at first blush. The drop came as the number of people holding part-time jobs for economic reasons swelled to 5.2 million in April, up sharply from 4.4 million a year earlier.

The dip in the unemployment rate also occurred as employers cut jobs for the fourth month in a row, pushing up total losses beyond the quarter-million mark -- to 260,000. Wages barely grew and workers' hours were trimmed. Taken altogether, these things point to a tepid picture of employment conditions nationwide.

Misery, misery, misery. Our presstitutes find nothing but misery at every turn. Our elected royals set up this country by allowing those not qualified to buy houses they could ill afford. Now the people are moving out, some even leaving the furniture they bought to equip the houses for comfort. now WE have a problem. This sort of thing is right up the democrat’s alley...look at all those poor, poor people having to leave their “homes”. What are WE going to do to fix our elected royals Reversed Red Line???? hmmmmm? According to the democrat congress the Reversed Red Line was supposed to help those who, in the past, could not afford a home, but now could so they could realize and live out the American dream. Looks like it turned into an Economic nightmare. Thank you elected royals.

I’ve heard some of these Reversed Red Liners are vandalizing these houses so no one else can live in them. Nice people.

Which part of this analysis is incorrect?

The drop came as the number of people holding part-time jobs for economic reasons swelled to 5.2 million in April, up sharply from 4.4 million a year earlier.

Are part time jobs better than full time jobs? Most come with no benefits.

The dip in the unemployment rate also occurred as employers cut jobs for the fourth month in a row, pushing up total losses beyond the quarter-million mark -- to 260,000. Wages barely grew and workers' hours were trimmed.

If employers don't see the need to create new jobs right now then they must not be very optimistic about growth in the near future.

Wages aren't going up but there is no doubt that gas and food prices are going up. That can only mean that consumers are saving less or more likely, spending less.

U.S. productivity -- an important ingredient to the country's long-term vitality -- grew solidly in the first three months of this year. That efficiency gain, however, came at the expense of workers.

The other reason productivity rises in a poor economy is a reduction in spending for new product development. No mention of R&D spending here but it would be another indicator.

Still, healthy efficiency gains are important for the economy because they can blunt inflation; that's good for companies' profits and good for those earning paychecks.

Also, many unproductive activities survive because of the extra money floating around in good times. A downturn is when the marginal businesses go under. Good for the economy because once things get better those resources will be directed to something more useful.

A drop in the United States' foreign oil bill -- reflecting less oil being imported -- played an important factor in the decline in imports.

This by itself is a sign of a contraction. It takes energy to make and transport things. Less energy usage means less industrial activity.

U.S. exports, meanwhile, have been helped by the falling value of the U.S. dollar. That makes U.S.-made goods and services less expensive to foreign buyers.

A reason for hope but it doesn't look like it's taken effect yet. I'm sure the Chinese will start buying our stuff soon.

In another anomaly, consumer borrowing rose in March at the fastest clip in four months.
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Economists said people don't have a choice because their paychecks aren't going as far and they can't tap into their homes, as they did during the housing boom, for ready sources of cash.

Hard to argue with that. People always run up their charge cards at the start of a downturn as hours are cut and jobs lost. That is, those who can. Many are already tapped out from our recent consumer spending spree.

But wait, both parties decided to send us some money to buy trinkets. More trinkets will help the economy. Yeah, that's the solution.

I just don't see how she is very far off base.

Forget trying to reason with them, where you see facts and reasoning, they see a worldwide conspiracy to discredit a Christian President and undermine the War in Iraq.

It’s all quite simple when you look at it in the big picture. After the attacks of 9/11, the Democratic Party, Wall Street Bankers, Allen Greenspan (a Jewish Foreign born Banker), the Homosexual Lobby and American Motor Companies, decided to form an alliance with the Arab Terrorist to bring down the Republican Party.

Allen Greenspan kept the rates artificially low, the Wall Street Bankers underwrote sub-prime mortgages they knew the borrowers wouldn’t be able to pay back, the American Motor companies made crappy fuel efficient cars, but great SUV’s increasing our gas consumption, the Democrats ran John Kerry and the Homosexuals ran with gay marriage because they knew he would lose so when the sub-prime mortgages all fell apart, when the eventual gas price increases hit the pump they would hurt Americans more than anybody else - everybody would blame Bush and the GOP. Don’t you get it, it’s so simple.

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