Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nicholas Thompson who wrote (6605)	3/18/2004 1:14:51 AM
From: Lazarus_Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 173976

Dear Sir, The change in the method in which the unemployed are counted took place back in the 1970's. Richard Nixon was President at the time as I recall. My thought when they did it was "My, my, what a convenient method of cheating this will become. So now we can no longer trust the official unemployment number." (Inflation always having been a "funny number", of course.) To my knowledge, the method of counting the unemployed has NOT changed between 1992 and now. So we are comparing apples and apples, even though those apples be rotten.

To: Nicholas Thompson who wrote (6605)	3/18/2004 11:30:43 AM
From: Karen Lawrence	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 173976

Consumer debt loads at record By Barbara Hagenbaugh, USA TODAY WASHINGTON — U.S. consumers have taken on record levels of debt as low interest rates have lured them to buy bigger houses and fancier cars and to charge more on credit cards than ever before. But while historically low interest rates make the higher debt levels manageable now, the big unknown is what will happen when interest rates rise. Weighing in on the increasingly heated debate, some economists warn consumers might be in over their heads when their payments increase. Others, including those at the Federal Reserve, say interest rates won't rise until economic growth — and incomes — are also gaining strongly, making the higher payments possible. Plus, much of the increase in debt in recent years has been for mortgages, and millions of Americans have low rates locked in for 30 years. www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/general/2004-03-17-debtcover_x.htm