Joel S. Hirschhorn: Despicable Lies, Delusional Economic Recovery, Hyped Unemployment Numbers

Bottom Line: The US government lies, and most Americans gobble up false and misleading information that is nothing less than political propaganda. Take the highly hyped unemployment number for March 2011, of 8.8 percent that that moved like a tornado through the media and was praised by Democrat politicians and the White House. As if that number were accurate, as if it fairly describes unemployment. It does NOT. What is called by "experts", such as Leo Hindery, as the real unemployment number was actually 17.7 percent, which is remarkably higher. To appreciate that much higher number is to throw a large bucket of cold water on all the political spin on the economic recovery. The official government unemployment figure has been carefully crafted to intentionally underestimate actual unemployment. The way the data are collected through a survey of homes, intentionally ignores a number of unemployed and underemployed Americans. The latter includes those who have stopped looking for a job, because it has become crystal clear to them that there are no jobs, as well as those working part-time, when what they really want is a good full time job.