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The percentage of Americans that are participating in the labor force is the lowest that it has been in 35 years. During the 70s, 80s and 90s, the labor force participation rate consistently rose as large numbers of women entered the workforce. It peaked at 67.3 percent in early 2000, and just before the last recession it was sitting at about 66 percent. Since the start of the last recession, the labor force participation rate has not stopped falling and it is now at a 35 year low. In September, 11,255,000Americans were considered to be “unemployed”, and an astounding90,609,000 Americans...

You know how it is, you're going along with the lies that are told every day about "recovery" and "economic conditions are kinda "OK" and "we're doing all right" and then the mainstream media and "economists" like Goldman's Alec Phillips step on their ***** and tell the truth by accident. Economists at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., IHS Inc. (IHS) and BNP Paribas SA said they expect the Treasury to husband the tax money it collects to make sure it can meet interest and principal payments on the nation’s debt. Other obligations, from salaries of government workers to payments to defense...

Top Obama administration officials will head to Detroit on Friday to announce nearly $320 million in federal and private aid as the city grapples with the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history. The aid includes money for housing rehabilitation and demolition, some $30 million targeted to fight crime and reduce the city’s notoriously long emergency response times, and millions more to rehabilitate the city’s transportation network. …

President Barack Obama—now eight months into his second term—said today that the U.S. economy is “still trying to recover” from events that took place five years ago before he took office. At the same time, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), which dates the beginning and ending of recessions in the U.S. economy, insists that the last recession ended more than four years ago. … According to the NBER, the last recession began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009. Since June 2009, which was the fifth full month of Obama’s presidency, the economy has been in a...

Audio Podcast: EconTalk Interview with UCLA professor of economics, Lee Ohanian from August 2012 "Lee Ohanian of UCLA talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the recession, the recovery, and the state of labor market. Ohanian describes the unusual aspects of this recession and recovery in the United States as shown by the labor market and the unusual performance of hours worked, productivity, and wages. He also discusses the behavior of business investment and speculates as to why this recession and the recovery has been so different in the United States. The conversation closes with a discussion of the role...

<p>The unemployment rate decreased for "inorganic reasons" as the labor force participation rate fell to 63.2 percent in August, the lowest since 1978.</p> <p>The participation rate has fallen by 1.6 percentage points since the beginning of 2010.</p> <p>"Some of this is due to the aging of the workforce but it reflects a weak labor market," said Stephen Bronars, senior economist at Welch Consulting. "The unemployment rate is declining for all the wrong reasons - people are dropping out of the workforce."</p>

Detroit Teachers Moonlight As ‘Sugar Babies’ To Offset Wage Cuts DETROIT (WWJ) - It’s back-to-school season and many Detroit teachers are struggling in the wake of budget cuts and overcrowded classrooms. According to the National School Supply and Equipment Association, the average teacher spent at least $485 on school supplies for their classroom last year. So, what are some Detroit women doing to offset their struggles in the classroom? Well, they’re becoming “sugar babies” of course — seeking financial assistance from wealthy men online. In the Detroit School District alone, 201 teachers are moonlighting as sugar babies to offset wage...

President Obama likes to talk about income inequality, but what matters far more is the actual income of the typical American. And how has the typical American household income fared on Obama's watch? Well, the economic "recovery" has now spanned an Olympiad, and during that time the typical American household income has not only dropped—it has dropped more than twice as much as it did during the recession. New estimates derived from Census Bureau's Current Population Survey by Sentier Research indicate that the real (inflation-adjusted) median annual household income in America has fallen by 4.4 percent during the "recovery," after...

In a blog post published this morning, the White House explains why historic economic data has been updated. "The comprehensive revision to the national accounts, which is the first since July 2009, includes additional source data received by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, as well as methodological changes designed to better reflect the evolving nature of the U.S. economy," writes Alan B. Krueger, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. "This morning the Bureau of Economic Analysis released a comprehensive revision to the National Income and Product Accounts, covering the full history of data since 1929. The revision showed that...

Revised Q2 GDP printed at 1.7% and that was higher than expected (1.0%), but lower than the previous print of 1.8%. And that print of 1.8% was revised downward to 1.1%. realgdp17 The GDP revision polka (pre- and post-revisions): GDP pre post revision Personal consumption growth, a large piece of real GDP, slowed to 1.8% in Q2 from a downward-revised 2.3% in Q1, also beating economists’ consensus estimate of 1.6% growth. pce073113 The personal saving rate (personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income) was 4.5 percent in the second quarter, compared with 4.0 percent in the first quarter....

We have all heard about liberal media bias, but this is just over the top. When the president begins looking to reporters for advice and approval of his policies, you know there is a problem! And not only is President Obama flaunting his positive reviews from the media a problem, but the fact that these reporters are giving their opinions seriously calls their professionalism into question. In his speech that lasted over an hour yesterday, President Obama said reporters praise his economic proposals as “great and tell him that they are “all good ideas”. The speech which droned on for...

Don't be fooled by the huge run in the US stock market and the rebound in the housing market. The financial crisis never really ended, and its effects continue to roil the global economy. This is the financial crisis that keeps on giving. Right now, I find myself asking many of the same questions about debt, risk and collateral that investors were asking in the run-up to the bankruptcy filing of Lehman Brothers in September 2008. The two big questions I have at the moment: Where's the collateral for all this debt -- private, corporate and governmental -- that has...

For most of his presidency, President Obama has been focused on the economic short run — which makes sense, given that he took office in the midst of the biggest recession since the 1930s. With his big economic speech today, he’s shifting to the long-run, talking about the structural changes he thinks the economy needs to see for the U.S. to prosper going forward. But anyone who thinks that the short-run battle is over should take a look at a new report by Daniel Alpert over at the Century Foundation. Alpert notes that while the headline unemployment number is well...

Many times in the past, politicians have used Orwellian double-speak and sleight-of-hand statistics to cover up their own failures. President Obama is a master of such tactics and nowhere is this more evident in the state of the US economy. We've been told for years that we're in "recovery" and "things are finally looking up." The sad truth is that this is all a lie and Obama's economic policies are leading us all to ruin and this is evident in real world facts. Fact number one: unemployment is much higher than the current 7.6% touted by the Obama administration. There...

Behind Wal-Mart, the second-largest employer in America is Kelly Services, a temporary work provider. Friday´s disappointing jobs report showed that part-time jobs are at an all-time high, with 28 million Americans now working part-time. The report also showed another disturbing fact: There are now a record number of Americans with temporary jobs. Approximately 2.7 million, in fact. And the trend has been growing. In the first quarter of 2013, U.S. staffing companies employed an average of 2.86 million temporary and contract workers, according to the American Staffing Association.

10 Reasons Why America Will Continue To Dominate The Global Economy For Years Steven Perlberg Jun. 22, 2013, 7:08 AMFlickr / Tambako the Jaguar The U.S. economy is in recovery mode right now. Sure, investors have been spooked by Fed taper talks, the Bank of Japan's unprecedented economic experiment, persistent jitters out of Europe, and concerns of a credit crisis in China. But by in large, investors should be pleased with the way things are going domestically, according to a new report from Joseph Quinlan, Chief Market Strategist for U.S. Trust. We walk you through U.S. Trust's 10 theses that...

“Sopranos” star James Gandolfini, who struggled with booze addiction in his final weeks, scarfed down a decadent final meal that included at least eight alcoholic drinks, The Post has learned. Gandolfini guzzled four shots of rum, two pina coladas, and two beers at dinner with his son — while he chowed down on two orders of fried king prawns and a “large portion” of foie gras, a hotel source in Rome said. The Emmy Award winner had attended several Alcoholics Anonymous meetings on Perry Street in the West Village, but people who saw him there “didn’t think that he was...

Reasons Why U.S. Housing Market Recovery Is Genuine Housing-Market / US Housing Jun 19, 2013 - 07:39 PM GMTGary Gately By: Money Morning Gary Gately writes: The housing market recovery is for real this time. Coming after the housing market crash, the recovery is welcome news to those in the industry - and bodes well for the economy as a whole. "It almost seems too good to be true," Lawrence Yun, the chief economist at the National Association of Realtors, told Money Morning. The latest confirmation of the market's rebound is the new survey of home builder confidence from Wells...

Global Recession Forecast - Is PIMCO's Bill Gross Wrong Again? Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2013 June 17, 2013 - 05:01 PM GMT By: Money Morning Keith Fitz-Gerald writes: Stuart Varney put the question directly to me last week during his Fox Business show: What do I make of comments from PIMCO's Bill Gross...that he's projecting a 60% chance of a global recession in the next three to five years? Now, Bill Gross is obviously one of the most powerful men in the world. PIMCO, the firm he founded, is the world's biggest bond manager. He has assets under management of...

JIM O'NEILL: We Could See A Bond Crash Steven Perlberg Jun. 14, 2013, 12:33 PM As the market speculates on when the Fed will begin to slow its quantitative easing program, former Goldman Sachs Asset Management chairman Jim O'Neill isn't alone in believing a taper would mean turbulence for financial markets. But for O'Neill, it would also "not be a stretch" to see 5% yields on the 10-year Treasury, reports Bloomberg. Given the 10-year's current 2.11% yield, that would imply a big sell-off in the bond market. O'Neill talked about that — and his prediction for a bond crash —...