The official unemployment figures may be down but as we all know, the official numbers are a joke. Put simply, they don't count some unemployed people as unemployed; it is as if those folks don't even exist, but in reality they do.
So, what unemployment percentage do you want, Mr. President? 5.5%? 5.0%? Or 4.0%? Just let us know what you want? It takes about a week to concoct the numbers!
As another example, here is how they rig the inflation numbers. These are NOT my words but that of the BLS magicians (emphases mine). Read it to the end. These folks can prove that inflation is zero by simply assuming that people substitute food by starvation! What a joke!
(From a BLS
document, "Incorporating a
geometric mean formula into
the CPI.")
Substitution can take several
forms corresponding to the types
of item- and outlet-specific
prices used to construct the basic
indexes. . . . Thus, in response
to an increase in the price
charged by a store for a certain
brand of ice cream, a consumer
could respond by:
Redistributing purchases:
* To another brand of ice cream
whose price had not risen.
* To a larger package of ice
cream with a smaller price
per ounce.
* To ice cream at a different
store where ice cream is on
sale.
* To a brand of frozen yogurt.
The consumer also could respond by
postponing the ice cream purchase
until a later date.
Finally, the consumer could
substitute from the ice cream
brand to a specific alternative
dessert item, such as cupcakes or
apples, which is another CPI
category.
This latter form of substitution,
although across CPI categories,
would still have the effect of
reducing the quantity consumed of
the higher-priced ice cream brand
relative to the quantities of
other items within the ice cream
stratum. . . . In the same way,
the use of the geometric mean
formula within categories does not
address the issue of whether
consumers can, or do, respond to a
general increase in the price of
ice cream products by, for
example, forgoing dessert." |
