Unemployment over 10 Percent in US, That's the "Official" rate

**smedley butler** · 11-06-2009

Which means the real unemployment rate is likely 20 percent.

The foreign press seems to have reported this story first:

US unemployment jumps to 10.2% - Yahoo! News

US unemployment jumps to 10.2%
AFP
4 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US unemployment rate shot up to 10.2 percent in October as another 190,000 jobs were shed, the government said Friday in a report showing narrowing job losses.

**smedley butler** · 11-06-2009

Of course, the stock market soared up 200 points the day this was announced.

There's a theory that "laying off people is good for business". It's been around since at least the horrible Bush Senior recession in the early '90s.

Nothing like lay offs to crack the whip over the heads of all those cubicle workers. "Better start putting in unpaid overtime or you're next."

A couple things I've noticed are that:

there are never "too many lay offs" where too many key people have been laid off and the work can no longer competently get done.
there is never any talk of "worker burn out" where the slave-driven workers become so demoralized their efficiency drops off. (I guess managers are supposed to spot those workers and fire them too.)
And supposedly there is never a drop in productivity from all those lay offs. It's always a good thing no matter what the business is.

I guess if these businesses really want to become the most efficient in the eyes of the Wall Street investors, they should lay off everyone, but the CEO and the public relations department, then the stock should shoot up to its highest possible value even though all the people actually making things have been laid off.

**smedley butler** · 11-09-2009

I saw someone comment:

Most of the construction and road repair money is going to illegals. Just check out any construction project and road crews. And they send a large part of it to Mexico. I'd guess that half of the billions in new government debt went to Mexico! So much for stimulating the American economy.

I suspect that most of the stimulus money is going to Democrat big shots and big donors to the Obama campaign.

What little money does trickle down to infra-structure repair will probably be carefully doled out to Black or Latino-run construction companies. (And by the way, it shouldn't take a special federal program to keep infra-structure maintained. Democrat imbeciles are so busy mismanaging all levels of government, that simple things like painting bridges and inspecting for damage are not getting done. I guess all the money is going to condom distributions and Diversity training. Hence the Minneapolis bridge collapse due to corrosion and fatigue and the recent 5,000 lb rod failure on the Oakland Bay Bridge.)

Who was that Democrat troll who specifically said the stimulus money for infra-structure repair should not go to White contractors (who run the vast majority of competent engineering companies)? I think it was that Clinton cronie, Robert C. Reich.

I don't think Obama has spent much --if any-- money on infra-structure. He definitely didn't prevent that giant 5,000 lb steel rod falling down on the Oakland Bay Bridge a couple weeks ago, closing the bridge down for a week.