Free Republic

First, I'm a grandfather for the first time, and it's an amazing blessing. The country my granddaughter has come into is at a very dangerous point. The economy is teetering, but Main Street is being told it's all okay. What's problematic is the rapid decline in the last year. That unemployment rate number on Friday was a total farce, but even if it was completely honest, 7.8% is way too high for an economy that supposedly turned the corner a long time ago. The number doesn't jibe, with an economy growing at 1.3%. The only honest aspect of the report...

Under ObamaCare, companies of more than 50 workers who do not provide health-insurance coverage have to pay significant fines, although not nearly as costly as the insurance itself. That alone might have employers bailing out of the health-insurance market, but the Orlando Sentinel reports that at least one company is testing a way to avoid both costs. Employers do not have to provide health-insurance coverage to part-time workers under ObamaCare as long as they work less than 30 hours a week, and one restaurant company has begun experimenting with changing over entire staffs to part-time work to avoid the ObamaCare...

To the millions of Americans unable to find work, to college graduates who can't get a job and are living with their parents, to the underemployed who are working at jobs far below their skill set and experience, and to those who have given up looking for work altogether, a 7.8 percent unemployment rate is meaningless. The economy stinks. And try as they might -- and they are trying mightily to rescue a man they sold to voters four years ago as a political messiah -- major media can't seem to transform a failing president into a success. "Fall in...

Analysts say many other companies, including the White Castle hamburger chain, are considering employing fewer full-timers because of key features of the Affordable Care Act scheduled to go into effect in 2014. Under that law, large companies must provide affordable health insurance to employees working an average of at least 30 hours per week. If they do not, the companies can face fines of up to $3,000 for each employee who then turns to an exchange — an online marketplace — for insurance.

Pop Quiz…How does the US economy add 800K+ jobs during a month in which employment taxes and consumer spending FALL? Answer: magic! Or actually the BLS [Bureau of Labor Statistics] lied... again.It’s truly staggering to see this brazen a lie out in the public. Even by the BLS’s standards (which has been massaging the hell out of its jobs data for years) this latest monthly employment number was a stretch. Of course, no one bothers explaining just how fraudulent the data was, because that would mean questioning the credibility of the BLS. Instead the whole issue becomes one of politics...

The latest jobs report is out, showing the economy added 114,000 jobs, beating estimates of 113,000. The unemployment rate fell to 7.8%, the Department of Labor reported, due to the addition of 873,000 people who self-identified as employed. That rate was a sharp drop from the 8.1% a month earlier. Those jobs were mostly part-time in nature. Also, the 7.8% jobless rate understates the problem of the underemployed. What would the unemployment rate be if all the people who want a job suddenly re-entered the workforce? Answer: 11.63%. For the math, see below. If the labor force participation rate had...

I have had enough of being thought of as stupid.  I’m sick and tired of the media, the administration and the spin doctors putting statistics and information out that is so cock-eyed, it is laughable.  It has been going on for a long time but this week the unemployment numbers were so ridiculous I thought I was watching an SNL comedy routine. How in the world do they think that they can get away with something so ludicrous?  If they wanted to manipulate the numbers to make Obama look good, they should have at least lowered the number to 8%...

After watching the first debate, I refuse to believe that American voters will choose an encore for Obama's version of "hope and change." Regardless of his new campaign promises, Romney reminded us of Obama's failed trickle-down-government and his string of broken promises. Here are ten reasons that it's time for a change in Washington. 1. He said, "I am pledging to cut the deficit we inherited by half by the end of my first term in office." Instead the deficit has increased by over $5.3 trillion and keeps on growing! 2. He said, "Transparency and the rule of law will...

When the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday that the unemployment rate had fallen to 7.8% in September, some observers wondered if the numbers had been "cooked" for political purposes. They can relax. Fake jobs numbers wouldn't look as bad as these. Two numbers in the BLS report attracted concern: the reported 873,000 increase in total employment, and the 0.3 percentage point reduction in the unemployment rate. These figures suggest a rapidly improving labor market, which would be very convenient for President Obama right now. However, as soon as one delves deeper into the BLS numbers, the reality of...

POSTED BY ANN BARNHARDT - MARCH 6, AD 2011 9:42 PM MST ...In my opinion, the "best-case scenario" would be continued inflation at roughly the pace we are experiencing now until Obama is removed from office. I am of the considered opinion that there is absolutely ZERO chance for any stabilization or recovery so long as the Obama regime holds power. ZERO. Why would there be? The Obama regime is actively and consciously trying to destroy the United States and its economy. Do you think these people are going to wake up one morning, come to Jesus, and suddenly...

OBAMA MAGICALLY LOWERS UNEMPLOYMENT BY ELIMINATING WORKFARE Chriss Street Oct. 7, 2012 All great magicians employ misdirection in creating miraculous illusions, leaving their audiences stunned and confused. President “Houdini’s” miraculous creation of 873,000 jobs in the month of September drove down the national unemployment rate from 8.1% to 7.8%, just as absentee voting begins. The trick left Republicans and economists equally befuddled, since the last time a similar monthly jobs increase appeared was June of 1983 when the economy was growing at an astronomical 9.3% annual rate. But looking behind Barack the Great’s smoke and mirrors reveals that the President’s...

Hope and Change apparently means that the Obama administration is counting on so many Americans giving up hope that the administration can now change the entire metric for measuring unemployment. When you analyze the most recent employment statistics, you have to conclude the strategy is working. We all know that Barack Obama's legacy will be that of a wide swath of destruction across the economy and in fact all of American life. And one item you can add to that Obama ash heap will be the trust anyone has in any government statistics -- most notably the official unemployment rate....

ABC is reporting that the White House has told defense contractors to not issue layoff notices until after the election. They even went as far as to offer to pay for any legal fees associated with not giving employees proper notice - pardon, you will pay for any legal fees associated with the administration keeping the unemployment rate artificially low. Two things: 1. Why aren't we hearing more about this from the mainstream media (rhetorical)? 2. Still think the jobs report yesterday was real?

The ad is titled “Dinner Table” and features a recently unemployed father trying to eat dinner with his worried wife and two kids. The only sounds that can be heard are the tinkling of utensils as the family unnervingly pokes at their food. It is a scene that has been played in real life in millions of homes across America during the Great Recession and the so-called recovery. After 23 seconds, the ad, which was created, written, and directed by Jon Kahn, then fades to a black-and-white question on the screen: “12.1 million Americans unemployed. Isn’t it time to try...

......there are two problems with the administration’s report. First,there’s the question of what figure to use to calculate employment levels because there are two data sets available. One is the establishment survey, which is based on payrolls and puts the jobs gained at 114,000–an unusually low number for this time of year. The second is the household survey, which is based on what people say they are doing at the moment. The household survey puts the jobs gained at 873,000–an unusually high number for this time of year. In fact, the household figure is so high that it’s likely that...

Mitt Romney's effort to overtake President Obama in the crucial swing state of Virginia may depend on how effective he is at convincing voters he can limit the economic damage from pending defense cuts. The Republican presidential candidate will give a foreign policy address at the Virginia Military Institute on Monday, looking to highlight what he calls President Obama's "taking a meat cleaver to the military." Under a deal between the Obama administration and Congress to raise the nation's borrowing capacity last year, leaders agreed to implement $1.2 trillion in automatic, across-the-board reductions over the next decade if a broader...

On the heels of a positive September jobs report, which showed a 0.3 percentage point drop in the national unemployment rate, prominent conservative Jack Welch and some others on the right are questioning the source of the numbers, suggesting on Twitter that the Obama team had in some way manipulated the data to their advantage. "Unbelievable jobs numbers..these Chicago guys will do anything..can't debate so change numbers," wrote Welch, the former chairman and CEO of General Electric, shortly after the September jobs report was released. Conservative radio host Laura Ingraham piled on in a Twitter message of her own: "Jobs...

Look what we have here! The unemployment rate decreased to 7.8 percent in September, and total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 114,000, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment increased in health care and in transportation and warehousing but changed little in most other major industries. This is rather amusing; +114,000 is fewer than the working-age population growth in the household survey (206,000) and yet unemployment decreased. Huh? The household survey's unadjusted numbers, however, show some rather interesting figures, none of which make sense. "Not in labor force" increased by 386,000 while "employed" increased by 775,000 a net...

Days after American Spectator Senior Editor John Fund warned gun owners about the dangers that voter fraud pose for the Second Amendment this year, September’s job report shows a surprising – and some suggest curious – drop below eight percent for the first time since Barack Obama took office. What’s that got to do with gun rights? Plenty, if one is worried about a second Obama term and what it could mean for future Second Amendment court battles, and the proposed United Nations Small Arms Trade Treaty. While it is good news for those who now have jobs, several people...

When Obama starts to brag in the next debate about the 7.8% unemployment rate, here is Romney's rejoinder: OK, Mr. President, so in your first four years, your policies have brought the unemployment rate from 7.8% to, er, 7.8%! So, at that rate, after four more years that will put the unemployment rate at, well, exactly 7.8%. Can you tell us why in the world should we give you another four years?