From Shadowstats:

"The SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate reflects current unemployment reporting methodology adjusted for SGS-estimated "discouraged workers" defined away during the Clinton Administration added to the existing BLS estimates of level U-6 unemployment."

http://www.shadowstats.com/charts_republish#emp

re: "unemployed" status is removed only if one stops seeking employment

What that means is that millions who are long-term unemployed and have given up ever even finding a job are not counted as unemployed. Neat trick. Which, of course, means things are much worse than reported. (U-6 shows nearly 16% unemployed).

This is different than it used to be and is one reason why you cannot compare present unemployment figures to those in the past.

What it also means is that as the depression deepens and more people give up looking for work, the reported unemployment rate could actually go down!

BWAHAHAHA!

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Rising Interest on Nations’ Debts May Sap World Growth

In the last three weeks, the pace of the increase in the 10-year Treasury note’s yield has quickened, spurred by a Congressional Budget Office estimate that net government debt will rise to 65 percent of the gross domestic product at the end of fiscal 2010, from 41 percent at the end of fiscal 2008.

In 2009 and 2010, Washington will sell more than $5 trillion in new debt, according to Citigroup. A decade from now, according to the Congressional Budget office, Washington’s outstanding debt could equal 82 percent of G.D.P., or just over $17 trillion. (MORE)

http://tinyurl.com/r3mg62

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New Mark-To-Market Accounting Rules Boost Banks' Equity

In the first quarter, for example, Bank of America Corp. (BAC) took back $277 million in losses that it posted in prior quarters.

http://tinyurl.com/pycnxf

The problem with this is that foreclosures will continue to climb and housing prices will drop further. Allowing the banks to claim that such a depreciating asset, the value of which is totally determined by the market, yet has a value higher than what the market will pay is insane.

re: They can't sell them, but they have value.

No market value, however.

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You cannot do a meaningful stress test without examining thoroughly each bank’s asset quality...Bottom line: there were no real examinations. Banks continue to overstate asset quality. The bankers pressured Congress, which extorted the Financial Accounting Standards Board, which gutted the accounting rules on loss recognition. Because there were no real examinations, there were no real stress tests.

-William K. Black

http://tinyurl.com/clf9t9

AS A RESULT:

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U.S. mortgage applications down as rates surge higher

Treasury yields have risen sharply in recent weeks, and mortgage rates have responded in kind.

http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE55238H20090603

No recovery in housing = no recovery in economy.

No recovery in economy = more borrowing.

More borrowing = higher interest rates.

Higher interest rates = no recovery in housing.

Etc.

SLATE readers will hate these ideas

You're on the wrong blog.

Bush and free markets

BWAHAHAHA!

the previous 25 years of extraordinary prosperity

BWAHAHAHA!

You're a very funny fellow.

re: The Market for Personal Transportation is not diminishing...

Yes, it is.

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Industry Fears Americans May Quit New Car Habit

...the market has collapsed by 46 percent...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/31/business/31car.html

Auto industry woes extend beyond U.S.

There is widespread agreement the industry is undergoing a deep, long-term downturn.

http://tinyurl.com/cosloq

re: The fantasy that we will all be software engineers is just that

Those jobs have also been outsourced or taken over by the H-1B visa crowd.

When I worked at Intel they were constantly whining about the need for more H-1B visas due to the supposed "lack" of American engineers. More than half the people I worked with were Pakistani, Indian, Korean, Chinese, or Middle Eastern.

Intel, like other high tech companies, knows the way to the bank. However, in their blind greed, they all forgot that by wiping out the American middle class and driving wages to the lowest common denominator there would be no one left who could afford to consume their products.

Welcome to "post-industrial" America.

...Middle-class jobs that do not need a college degree are disappearing. Job security is all but gone. And the nation is more unequal...

Thanks, in large part, to the bonehead who wrote this article and his globalist wet dream pals who convinced us that offshoring our manufacturing base was good for us as we moved to his Fantasyland of "a new, post-manufacturing economy".

Fucking idiot!