The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Economics, Translated to Plain English

Posted on | May 3, 2013 | 14 Comments

The eminent James Pethokoukis gives you the technocratic jargon:

US job growth in April beat economist expectations as nonfarm payrolls rose 165,000, and the jobless rate fell to a four-year low of 7.5%. But the report contained worrisome signs that President Obama’s health care reform law is hurting full-time, high-wage employment.
While the American economy added 293,000 jobs last month, according to the separate household survey, the number of persons employed part time for economic reasons — “involuntary part-time workers” as the Labor Department calls them — increased by almost as much, by 278,000 to 7.9 million. These folks were working part time because a) their hours had been cut back or b) they were unable to find a full-time job. At the same time, the U-6 unemployment rate — a broader measure of joblessness that includes discouraged workers and part-timers who want a full-time gig — rose from 13.8% to 13.9%.

Which is all very interesting, although for those of us who lack the necessary expertise — and hell, I can barely even spell Pethokoukis — further simplification may be required:

“Low-information voters.”

Has anybody heard from Peggy Joseph lately?

 

Category: Barack Obama, Economics

Comments

14 Responses to “Economics, Translated to Plain English”

  1. Finrod Felagund
    May 3rd, 2013 @ 2:18 pm

    Liberals keep trying to repeal the Law of Cause and Effect, but it just doesn’t seem to take. What did they think would happen to part-time workers when employers have to take on a huge additional cost for part-time workers that work 30+ hours/week?

    Incidentally, I heard of a couple of fast-food places that solved the ObamaCare problem: a McDonald’s and a Burger King cross-trained each other’s workers and now their employees work 20 hours at one and 20 hours at the other each week.

  2. JeffS
    May 3rd, 2013 @ 2:37 pm

    There’s a reason why President Zero is known as SCOAMF.

  3. Confirmed: All but 15,000 of last month’s “new jobs” are part time jobs | He's pretty fly for a Jersey guy
    May 3rd, 2013 @ 2:53 pm

    […] Stacy McCain has the details via James Pethokoukis. […]

  4. Adjoran
    May 3rd, 2013 @ 3:16 pm

    The Obamedia is touting “growth in the job market” as if the single metric tells the story. The reality is the “job market” is the total of employment, and it is drastically lower. Minor incremental changes in the percentage only indicate a temporary bottoming out, combining those who have fallen off the stats (contrary to popular belief, “discouraged workers” haven’t necessarily given up looking for work, they just passed an arbitrary time of unemployment when it is no longer convenient to count them) with the limited natural fluctuations.

    As ObamaCare becomes more fully implemented and its effects clearer, even media cheerleaders won’t be able to “hide the decline.”

  5. Neo
    May 3rd, 2013 @ 4:17 pm

    It’s pretty obvious that with the multi-pronged gun-control effort coming out of the White House that today’s employment numbers from BLS were underwhelming.

  6. Neo
    May 3rd, 2013 @ 4:20 pm

    The ultimate reality of the Obama Administration is that there is little hope.

    When JFK was President, the USA was going to the moon and every child wanted to grow up to be an astronaut.

    When BHO is President, the USA is going nowhere. The space shuttle is no more. Children can aspire to be on Food Stamps when they grow up.

  7. robertstacymccain
    May 3rd, 2013 @ 4:41 pm

    Children can aspire to be on Food Stamps when they grow up.

    Unless Dr. Gosnell gets hold of them, in which case growing up is not an option.

  8. Cube
    May 3rd, 2013 @ 6:06 pm

    This!

    JFK was a little before my time but I remember how the Carter years crushed so many hopes. Then Reagan came along and suddenly we knew what it was to be Americans again. May those days return again soon.

  9. Bob Belvedere
    May 3rd, 2013 @ 6:32 pm

    Stacy wrote: Has anybody heard from Peggy Joseph lately?

    I tried to reach her on her Obama Phone(tm), but it’s been bizay.

  10. Bob Belvedere
    May 3rd, 2013 @ 6:33 pm

    They’ll try every trick in the book, though.

  11. Bob Belvedere
    May 3rd, 2013 @ 6:33 pm

    It was ‘unexpected!’.

  12. jsn2
    May 3rd, 2013 @ 7:06 pm

    Has anybody heard from Peggy Joseph lately?

    She got what she wanted –
    http://thelifeofjulia.com/

  13. Adjoran
    May 3rd, 2013 @ 8:56 pm

    Peggy gots no time to deal with white men who dress like Yoko Ono, she be out shopping for her Obamapartment with the cash she got for her SNAP credits.

  14. Mike G.
    May 4th, 2013 @ 1:03 pm

    Tell me about it. I was serving in the military during Carter.