UP!! is Down–500,000 unemployed no longer counted

Headlines read “36,000 jobs added last month” as if this was some kind of record shattering figure.  It should have read:

“500,000 Americans drop out of the labor force thus pushing the unemployment rate lower for the wrong reasons.”

According to US government BLS figures as of January 2011:

Civilian labor force (Dec 2010):                   153,690,000

Civilian labor force (Jan 2011):                    153,186,000

Over 500,000 people just disappeared [dropped out] from the labor force.

(Source:  Economic chicanery – Social Security financial headwinds, another 395,000 Americans added to food stamp assistance in latest month of data, and manipulating the unemployment rate  )

Relax! It's just an elephant in the room.

.

Matt Taibbi explains:

.

Read Full Post »

Most Americans Support Public Sector Unions

Union supporters in Wisconsin

More Union supporters in Wisconsin

Majority in Poll Back Employees in Public Sector Unions

(Source: NY Times)

A majority of Americans say they oppose efforts to weaken the collective bargaining rights of public employee unions and are also against cutting the pay or benefits of public workers to reduce state budget deficits, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

• Americans oppose weakening the bargaining rights of public employee unions by a margin of nearly two to one: 60 percent to 33 percent.
• Americans oppose, 56 percent to 37 percent, cutting the pay or benefits of public employees.
• Americans, 61 percent of those polled — including just over half of Republicans — say the salaries and benefits of most public employees were either “about right” or “too low” for the work they do.

Read Full Post »

Scapegoating Public Employees — Wall St congratulates themselves with $144 billion in bonuses

The Republican vs. Democrat charade — good cop, bad cop nonsense — is a mere smokescreen. Don’t be confused by obsolete preconceptions and propaganda. There is one war being fought, The Global Economic Elite Vs. The People. (Source)

CEO, Goldman Sachs

Endless affirmative action for the rich

It should be clear to anyone with a little more intelligence than a turnip that the bailouts were nothing more than calculated theft from ‘the people’ in order to cover the inconvenient results of Wall Street’s greed and mistakes and to allow for wholesale robbery in name of protecting the system. (Source)  Consider Goldman Sachs, for example (Source2):

• Investment: Goldman Sachs is the 3rd largest contributor to House and Senate campaigns–and to the Obama Administration
• Rise to power: Goldman Sachs successfully lobbied  the Obama Administration and Congress to have 48 Goldman Sachs operatives appointed to key financial administration positions  (updated list here: An Updated List of Goldman Sachs Ties to the Obama Government).
• Payouts:  Goldman has taken more than $20 billion in taxpayer cash through bailouts, payments and backstops; BUT, what a lucky coincidence, in 2009 Goldman paid themselves $16.2 B in “bonuses”; plus Goldman Sachs paid out $5 billion more in bonuses in the first three months of 2010 [Without Governments bailouts Goldman's 2009 bonuses would have been zip, zero, ziltch.]
• It’s systemic: The nation’s six largest banks set aside $140 billion for executive compensation in 2009–which works out to an amount equal to over $1000 from every household in America, just for Wall Street’s 2009 bonuses! . . . and Wall Street to get $144 Billion in Bonuses for 2010.
• But, it’s all OK because, “We Serve the Banks“–see also Econ 101, and At a Glance.

After the public’s money has been given away to bail out the rich, of course there’s nothing left to pay for much else . . . Meanwhile,

There’s been a wave of propaganda over the last couple of months, which is pretty impressive to watch, trying to deflect attention away from those who actually created the economic crisis, like Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, their associates in the government who—Federal Reserve and others—let all this go on and helped it. (Source)

For example, Mish Shedlock of  the blog Global Economic Trend Analysis, routinely scapegoats public sector workers by arguing that state and local finances are completely broken because government workers are overpaid. But apparently public workers are not the problem in states like California–Mish himself writes in his blog that:

.

Read Full Post »

State and local government compensation lags private sector

The Center for State and Local Government Excellence and the National Institute on Retirement Security jointly released a study comparing what state and local government employees earn compared with private sector workers. The study, “Out of Balance? Comparing Public and Private Sector Compensation Over 20 Years,” provides an original analysis of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and finds that: (Source)

Jobs in the public sector typically require more education than private sector positions. State and local employees are twice as likely to hold a college degree or higher as compared to private sector employees. Only 23 percent of private sector employees have completed college, as compared to about 48 percent in the public sector.

Wages and salaries of state and local employees are lower than those for private sector employees with comparable earnings determinants, such as education and work experience. State workers typically earn 11 percent less and local workers 12 percent less.

During the last 15 years, the pay gap has grown: Earnings for state and local workers have generally declined relative to comparable private sector employees.

The pattern of declining relative earnings remains true in most of the large states examined in the study, although there does exist some state level variation.

Benefits make up a slightly larger share of compensation for the state and local sector. But even after accounting for the value of retirement, healthcare, and other benefits, state and local employees earn less than private sector counterparts. On average, total compensation is 6.8 percent lower for state employees and 7.4 percent lower for local employees than for comparable private sector employees.

For a long time, there has been a compensation trade-off in public sector jobs – better benefits come with lower pay as compared with private sector jobs. This study tells us that is still true today. What’s striking is that on a total compensation basis looking at pay and benefits; employees of state and local government still earn less than their private sector counterparts. – Beth Almeida, NIRS Executive Director (Source)

• Download the full report “Out of Balance? Comparing Public and Private Sector Compensation Over 20 Years” here.
• Read the Press Release here.
• Download the PowerPoint here.
• Download the Fact Sheet here.
• Download the FAQ here.

.

Related Articles

• Public employees work for less, not more (dailykos.com)
• The Problem Is That America’s Richest 1% Are Raking It in — Not Public Employee Pensions (alternet.org)
• The shameful attack on public employees (salon.com)

Read Full Post »

Joke or Deadly Serious?

If you can get into a cushy government job, you’ll be on easy street through this depression while your poor neighbors in the private sector really struggle. Here’s the ideal positioning for the depression. Obviously, not everyone will be able to achieve all of these, but work toward as many as you can (Source):

* Government job
* Own a home with a 30-year-fixed mortgage (because those dollars will be worthless by the time you pay them back
* 12+ months of expenses saved, equally split between cash and gold
* Canned and dry bulk food stockpiled
* Guns and ammo stockpiled

Read Full Post »