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The employment figures have turned into one giant inside joke. The mainstream press living in perpetual bubbles thinks that most of the American public is following one giant conspiracy theory if they don’t simply accept that everything is fantastic in the economy. The funny thing is that the same reporting agency that gives us a low unemployment rate also shows us that a record 94.7 million Americans are not in the labor force. These are Americans that can work but are simply out of the labor force (we are not counting children here). Wall Street and D.C. thinking is that...

Beede was a transgender male and police initially considered the possibility the attack was a hate crime. But they now believe it was part of an ongoing feud between two nearby homeless encampments that included Beede retaliating for the spreading of feces on a tent. "Amos Beede took bottles of urine and dumped them in Erik Averill's tent. Once Erik Averill was able to determine it was Amos Beede who retaliated by dumping bottles of urine, he committed to then assaulting Mr. Beede. He enlisted help and executed the assault," said Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo.

A record 94,708,000 Americans were not in the labor force in May -- 664,000 more than in April -- and the labor force participation rate dropped two-tenths of a point to 62.6 percent, near its 38-year low, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday. When President Obama took office in January 2009, 80,529,000 Americans were not participating in the labor force; since then, 14,179,000 Americans have left the workforce -- some of them retiring and some just quitting because they can't find work. "By almost every economic measure, America is better off than when I came here...

If anyone was "worried" about the Verizon strike taking away 35,000 jobs from the pro forma whisper number of 200,000 with consensus expecting 160,000 jobs, or worried about a rate hike by the Fed any time soon, you can sweep all worries away: moments ago the BLS reported that in May a paltry 38,000 jobs were added, a plunge from last month's downward revised 123K (was 160K). The number was the lowest since September 2010! There is no way to spin this number as anything but atrocious.

Depending on how much credence you give to "whisper listings," there are between 27 and 50 $100,000,000+ houses on the market; last year, only two houses in that bracket sold worldwide. The glut of super-duper-ultra-luxury houses on the market worries economy-watchers, who view the oversupply as a bellwether for a housing crash -- the last glut (which wasn't nearly as pronounced as the current one) was in 2007/8.

In Obama's America, a third of all young adults between the ages of 18 and 34 are broke, single, and living with their parents. The Pew Research Center released its new study showing that Millennials are tipping the scales for the first time in modern history. From CBS Money Watch: About 32.1 percent of Americans between 18 to 34 years old lived in their parents' homes in 2014, edging out the 31.6 percent who were married or living with a partner in their own household, the analysis of Census data found. The remaining 36 percent either live alone, are single...

For Caterpillar, the great recession was bad, for about 19 months. In May 2010, after declining sharply for just under two years, CAT posted it first positive global retail sales comps and never looked back... until December 2012 when comp sales once again turned negative and have been negative ever since. For the past 41 months! The breakdown showed that contrary to popular opinion, there has been no pick up in demand for heavy industrial machinery anywhere around the globe.

The rich get richer, the poor get poorer … but what happens to the middle class? It depends, according to a new study this week from Pew. In some metropolitan areas, the middle class move into the richer category, while in others it declines into the poorer. However, Pew’s research makes it clear that the middle class is narrowing: The American middle class is losing ground in metropolitan areas across the country, affecting communities from Boston to Seattle and from Dallas to Milwaukee. From 2000 to 2014 the share of adults living in middle-income households fell in 203 of the...

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week to the highest level since February 2015, more sobering news for the labor market after a disappointing April jobs report. The Labor Department reported Thursday that applications for jobless aid rose by 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted 294,000. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, rose by 10,250 to 268,250, highest in nearly three months. […] “Today’s jobless claims report was a surprise, and not a positive one,” said Jim Baird, chief investment officer at Plante Moran Financial Advisors. “Jobless claims have moved sharply higher in recent weeks, reinforcing...

292 Union Pacific engines idled in Arizona Desert Total US rail traffic in April plunged 11.8% from a year ago, the Association of American Railroads reported today. Carloads of bulk commodities such as coal, oil, grains, and chemicals plummeted 16.1% to 944,339 units. - snip - Only five of the 20 commodity categories saw gains. Of the decliners, coal was the biggest. But petroleum products also plunged 25%, and grain mill products dropped 7%. Even without coal, carloads were down 3% year-over-year.

The number of Americans not in the labor force last month totaled 94,044,000, 562,000 more than in March -- and the labor force participation rate dropped to 62.8 percent (near a 38-year low), following four straight months of slight improvement. When President Obama took office in Janaury 2009, the labor force partipation rate was 65.7 percent, after hovering in the 66-67 percent range for much of the George W. Bush presidency. The recession inherited by the Obama administration officially ended in June 2009, but the labor force participation rate continued to drop during Obama's two terms, hitting 62.4 percent in...

If you thought Obamacare was terrifying, just wait until you read about what President Obama's regulatory agencies are planning to do with your retirement savings. According to an alarming report in the Wall Street Journal, government regulators at the Labor Department will be implementing new rules at the end of the year that will eventually force private retirement investments into government accounts. How? By making private investment options, specifically IRAs, too burdensome, a liability and expensive. Bolding is mine.

While we all very capable of discerning the 'recovery' facts from the peddled recovery fiction throughout President Obama's reign... ...a close up over the last six months suggests things are getting worse in a hurry. As The Economic Collapse blog's Michael Snyder details, while most people seem to think that since the stock market has rebounded significantly in recent weeks that everything must be okay, that is not true at all. Has the U.S. economy gotten better over the past six months or has it gotten worse?  In this article, you will find solid proof that the U.S. economy has continued...

First-quarter growth is now tracking at just 0.9 percent, after new data showed surprising weakness in consumer spending and a wider-than-expected trade gap. According to the CNBC/Moody's Analytics rapid update, economists now see the sluggish growth pace based on already reported data, down from 1.4 percent last week. According to the rapid update, economists have a median forecast of 1.6 percent growth in first-quarter GDP, which includes their estimates for data not yet released. "It's not a polar vortex winter. You can't blame the weather this year. It's the consumer. I think there's a problem with the measurement but at...

I will be the first to admit that I have been bitterly disappointed in President Obama's tenure. Some of the disagreements are philosophical in nature: the fact that he believes in a different America than the one I believe in. Obama’s vision is an America with a bigger government, more bureaucratic control and income redistribution, basically European-style socialism, which, in my opinion, is doing damage to the nation that will take decades to repair.

Predominantly African-American neighborhoods in Chicago have seen poverty rise and services diminish even as the nation's third largest city has become less racially segregated, according to a study released on Wednesday. While Chicago has become more racially balanced over the decades with more neighborhoods showing no majority populations, black areas are seeing economic stagnation or decline, according to the study by the Chicago Urban League, which promotes progress for blacks. "This is not a situation that's getting better. This is a situation that's getting worse," said Stephanie Bechteler, director of research and evaluation for the Chicago Urban League. "We must...

U.S. stocks tumbled Monday morning to their lowest level in 22 months as a fresh drop in oil prices amid continuing fears of economic slowdown pushed investors to the perceived safety of government bonds and gold. "Is the market throwing out the baby with the bath water?"said James Meyer, chief investment officer at Tower Bridge Advisors, referring to the "rapid fall in prices for the high flying tech and biotech names that have been leading the market for the past 12 months." "The former leaders of the previous bull cycle are the ones that get taken to the woodshed in...

For more than seven years, Federal Reserve officials have touted their progress toward achieving "full employment," with the most recent target a 4.9 percent unemployment rate. With Friday's nonfarm payrolls report showing that the goal has been achieved, perhaps the Fed can raise the "Mission Accomplished" banner along with a welcome mat to the world of "full employment." The jobless rate last reached this level in February 2008, following a run from June 2005 to April 2008 during which unemployment never eclipsed 5 percent. Getting a "4-handle" on the number -- using Wall Street lingo -- was supposed to represent...

1. Only 62.7% of adult Americans are working. The so-called Labor Force Participation rate hasn't been this low since the late 1970s. ... 2. Long-term unemployment is still high. ... About 2.1 million Americans have been unable to get a job for over half a year. The government calls these people the "long-term unemployed." ... 3. Wage growth is anemic. ... The typical take home pay (often called "median income" by the Census Bureau) is about the same today as it was 20 years ago, once you adjust for inflation. In other words, middle class families aren't really getting ahead....

Wall Street stocks ended sharply lower Tuesday as investors unloaded energy and financial stocks amid a selloff in crude-oil futures, which settled below $30 a barrel. The downdraft in energy shares and banks offset strong gains in Google parent Alphabet Inc.-which officially surpassed Apple Inc. to become the most valuable company in the world-toy maker Mattel, and fashion retailer Michael Kors. A fresh 5.5% slump in oil prices following a 6% slide Monday, weighed on energy companies' stocks. The energy sector had the worst performance of the S&P 500's 10 sectors, down 3.3%, followed by financials, declining 2.6%.