Giddyap, li’l economists!
Let’s start with government manipulation of data. Remember when I said that manipulation of inflation data allowed for instant manipulation of Gross Domestic Product data? A smarter economist has gone much farther than I could to outline the ways that GDP is manipulated. In short, if you look at the big picture without the rosy glasses, we’ve been in a recession most of the last 3 years!
The New York Times is a little slow on this one, saying that More Arrows Seen Pointing to Recession. Analysts start to theorize that the angry mob of unemployed and underemployed people who can barely gas up their cars to go buy groceries aren’t there out of sheer laziness, film at 11.
And about those groceries, store brands are appearing in more and more of our carts. So much for consumer staples being recession proof!
Locally, a lot of school supplies are coming from Dollar Tree and a lot of school clothes are from Goodwill, where they offer a student and teacher discount with ID.
Minyanville has a nice piece on how the latest minimum wage increase still leaves workers behind where they were 11 years ago.
Speaking of inflation, Alternet goes out there to point out full-on stagflation when you look at real employment rates and actual price increases of things average people buy. “Let them eat pizza” indeed.
Citizen Carrie is right on when it comes to labor issues.
In closing: updating the Kosher rules for the modern global economy; Toyota’s Segway alternative (maybe they’ll toss one in if you buy a large SUV); too fit to be President??; and why is Wal-Mart afraid of a Democratic win in the fall.
a little (short?) perspective on the employment numbers from a guy in the trades… those that can spend are concentrating their spending on energy efficiency upgrades (in my locale, window companies are blitzing the airwaves.)
Of my suppliers (cabinet sales companies,) one folded outright and the other only recently started signing contracts with any regularity. I have been working only off and on since February (with the emphasis on OFF.)
A bright note is that I have seen more new starts, or rather re-starts (giant tracts that had begun work and then fallen idle)at many of the housing developments around my area, although I suspect that each house being built is pre-purchased and not speculative. Additionally, business has picked up somewhat for me, too.
So while, as a business owner whose business has been (almost completely) idled for nearly three months, I do/did not count as unemployed, I can assure you that the final result is the same; just not counted.