Consumer spending: up .8% in July

Wages: up .4%

Wages and supplements to salaries: up 5.3% over 2nd quarter after a 5.2% increase in the first quarter.

Spending on durable goods(autos, furniture,etc.) in july: up 4.5%

University of Michigan consumer sentiment number up to 95.9, well above the 94.0 forcast. People have more confidence in the economy.

Personal bankruptcies: down .8%

How come the unemployment rate going down hasn't been mentioned once in all this economic news that I have been seeing around here the past few days? That was a super important number just a few months ago.

Another example of how the media is biased.

Wow, someone said that the media is biased without using the word liberal.

the way to tell whats really going on is to see what the media is NOT reporting on. the less they talk about the economy, they better it is doing.

Thats a good rule of thumb for anything. If the media talks about it, it is probably bad, because bad news is more interesting than good news.

Read it and weep.

http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=businessNews&storyID=6125147

And here's 6000 more without jobs -- yeah the economy is improving -- ROTF

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world_business/view/104371/1/.html

Just to show you how blind you are, here is an article stating that the unemployment rate is at its lowest point since 1990:

http://www.cnn.com/US/9607/05/jobless/

Well this blind man says the problem isn't the unemployment *RATE* -- it's the unemployment -- there is a HUUUUUUUUGE differnce.

Dop

I see, I see said the blind man to his deaf brother.


I agree 100 Dop.

Well this blind man says the problem isn't the unemployment *RATE* -- it's the unemployment -- there is a HUUUUUUUUGE differnce.

Ohhhhhhh, that isssss a HUUUUUUUGE difference!! :)

Didn't they just say that consumer confidence is UP? Then how the heck can this be? Don't they go hand in hand or were the laws of economics changed yesterday? ROTF

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/breaking/breakingnewsarticle.asp?feed=OBR&Date=20040902&ID=3950675

They're flip flopping so fast they can't even get their story straight.

Dop

so now the unemployement rate doesnt matter dop, is that what you said? just want to get this on record for the next time you bring it trying to make bush look like a loser.

The "official" unemployment numbers don't mean a damn thing. When a persons unemployment compensation runs out they are no longer counted as unemployed. You can spout all day about the "unemployment" rates being up, but that doesn't tell us the truth about how many workers are out of jobs. And it doesn't correlate how many people got laid off of good middle class jobs and are now forced to work for minimum wage because there are so few good jobs left that haven't been shipped oversees. Oh yes, Bush can say he has put thousands of people to work durring his administration, but he should also add that before he took office these people had good paying middle class jobs and now they are working for minimum wage (which he also wants to keep as low as posible).

Statistics can tell you anything you want them to. The truth is found by talking to the American workers, they will tell you how many of them are out of work or under-employed.

lol, THE TRUTH IS TALKING TO AMERICAN WORKERS OUT OF JOBS, YOU FORGOT THE LITTLE PART. i CANT BELIEVE THAT YOU GUYS ARE CLAIMING THAT THE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE DOESNT MATTER, A MONTH AGO YOU WERE HANGING YOUR HAT ON IT!!!!!!!!! I cant believe it man. do you know haow lame and pathetic it look sto explain away everything the way you are?

"theres jobs, but they are not good enough"

"the unemployment rate went down, but that number doesnt mean anything"

Come on! at least try to look like you re not just blatently flip flopping all over what you used to say jsut for some cheap political shot

Trav, unemployment rates don't matter. Unemployment does. Unemployment rate is a bland number that says nothing. It says "such and such number of people don't have jobs", it doesn't tell you why, it doesn't tell you even if they don't. Somebody could be selling crack on the side of the road, technically they are unemployed, but are they really? Also, somebody could have a job, but is it paying enough for them to actually survive decently? Statistics can tell you many things, but rates are outrageously unspecific.

Not everyone can have a good job. It's just the way things are. Some people have good jobs and some people have bad jobs. Not everyone can have a good job, because these good jobs usually manage people doing bad jobs. No bad jobs, no good jobs.

"The best use of resources is to promote the dumbest employee to where he can do the least damage. That is in management." - The Dilbert Principle

I daresay, m'boy, that you are holding an archaic capitalist value that shall be proven wrong. 'Tis the era of technology, and I do not see it ceasing.

I dont know about you Trav....but it sounds like the democrats HATE that america is doing anything positive under a repbulican president. Its almost like they want our country to do bad.....they hate bush more than the terrorists. We have evidence that the Rate of Unemployment is turning around, and while i heard boat-loads about it while it was most convenient..now that it supports bush it doesn't matter. I'll give it to the dems, they are sly and sneaky, but i wasn't born yesterday.

Blib. How exactly would everyone be able to have a good job? I guess robots could take the bad ones, but then a lot of people would have no jobs.

Blib. How exactly would everyone be able to have a good job? I guess robots could take the bad ones, but then a lot of people would have no jobs
You would have to define good job, and bad job. I know some people would rather quit before getting promoted. I wasn't necessarily speaking of robots, although possible, I was speaking of ease of use. An intelligent person placed into a horrid job, will find a way out of it. Examples throught history. However, these easier usage of things for the intelligent trickle down for the lesser intelligent(profit or no, generally not though). Where the lesser and lesser intelligent find easier ways to do their jobs. And whilst the old jobs have been simplified or automated to where they really aren't even jobs anymore, more jobs have been created because of those. The newer jobs are not nearly as bad as the ancient ones(unless it is strictly profit-base). Therefore, if the pattern continues(and I really don't see how it could stop), jobs will be simplified to the point complaints are entirely unfounded(as we have seen many become, most union jobs for instance). Thus, ancient capitalist dogma will cease to be. :D

ahh. i see what you mean. I was referring to both the kind of bad jobs which really suck, like the guy who sweeps the horse crap off the streets after a parrade, and the kind of bad jobs that do not pay well. Usually they are the same. But for my capitalism model, it would be the ones that do not pay well. I think it would be great so that complaints would be almost gone, but the fact still remains not everyone can be a well paid VP. Shit happens and someone always has to clean it up.

We have evidence that the Rate of Unemployment is turning around, and while i heard boat-loads about it while it was most convenient..now that it supports bush it doesn't matter.

As a liberal, I will admit the economy is starting to get better. But how does that support Bush? As the republicans pointed out during the 1990's, "the President doesn't have anything to do with the economy...it goes in cycles". But now I keep hearing the lies about how the tax cut has turned the economy around, when the real reason is that we have had interest rates at or near record lows for a couple of years. That has saved people a lot more money than the tax cut. The Republicans trying to heral Bush and the Democrats trying to blame Bush are all just playing political games as usual.