To Annoy The Media Discuss The Economy

The media wants to talk about any issue other than the economy these days. President Obama is thrilled that the media continues to report what his administration and campaign feed it. Make no mistake, the focus on everything but the economy comes directly from the White House. In the current economic climate, Obama stands little chance of re-election. Of course, if Rasmussen is to be believed the President’s flip flop return to his 1996 position on homosexual marriage isn’t helping him either, he’s now down 7 to Romney among likely voters. It’s the economy that matters though, even if the media doesn’t want to discuss it.

Everyone knows the 8.1% unemployment number is a sham. LD Jackson discussed it yesterday. The only way for the government to have the unemployment rate drop when only 115,000 jobs are created is to declare that hundreds of thousands of Americans are no longer in the work force. Some of these people have no doubt given up working, others are simply removed from the pool to make the government look better. The real unemployment rate is 14.5%. This government statistic measures those who are unemployed as well as those who have given up looking for work and those working part time who would like full time employment but cannot find it. This number may be artificially low as Gallup reports the underemployment rate (which measures the same people) is 18.3%.

Gallup reports that one in three young workers (ages 18-29) are underemployed. This fits right in with reports that recent college graduates are having a difficult time finding work. This is a group that Obama not only win but convince to come out to the polls in droves if he wants to win re-election. It begs the question why young people would want to vote for Obama when young underemployment hasn’t been higher in several generations and college graduates cannot find jobs. If you cannot find a job it really doesn’t matter what the government sets the student loan interest rate at because student loan debtors cannot pay either way.

Consumer confidence dropped in March and remained steady in April. In short, consumer confidence in the economy is not getting any better. The jobs market isn’t getting any better. Gas prices are down but they’re still over $3.50 a gallon. Real inflation is above 6%. Inflation is something the media never talks about anymore. The government inflation rate is based on big ticket items and goods that rarely change in price. When you include more volatile goods like food and gas the inflation rate goes up and government looks bad. Anyone who has been to the grocery can tell you when inflation is hitting because the price of meat, dairy and produce increases.

The economy is in a sad state right now. It’s something that needs to be discussed not just by media but by individual Americans sitting around their dinner table or talking to their friends in the front yard. Obama’s policies haven’t made the economy any better. He’s given us $5 trillion in new debt, massive new regulations, a meaningless Wall Street regulation package that couldn’t stop JP Morgan from losing $2 billion in risky investments (I don’t care if JP Morgan loses its money but Obama’s regulations were supposed to prevent this sort of thing thus they’re clearly a failure) and we won’t even discuss Obamacare which has been the single biggest drain on business since it was passed. The economy is a mess, the economy is Obama’s. No wonder he and the media don’t want to talk about it.