Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Secretary of Labor Reich: Unemployment Numbers Show We're Already In a Depression

Robert Reich was Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton, and is an economics professor at U.C. Berkeley.

Reich has every incentive to paint a rosy picture of the economy, because:

  • Committed Democrats want Obama to succeed in turning the economy around, and worry that "gloomy talk" about the economy could make that difficult
  • The Labor Department has traditionally used a reduced unemployment figure (called "U-3") to hide the extent of job losses

So it is news that Reich, citing the real unemployment numbers (called "U-6") says we're already in a depression:

This is still not the Great Depression of the 1930s, but it is a Depression.
For more on the real unemployment numbers, see this and this. For more on high-level experts who have said we're already in a depression, see this.

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3 comments:

  1. UnknownApril 7, 2009 at 4:05 PM

    If you look at the blog you did earlier and compare 29 to today http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/04/economics-professors-global-crash-worse.html It's damned obvious we are in a depression as bad or maybe even worse than 29. All this happy talk about a recovery under way is pure bullshit. If this runs the course of previous depressions it will last close to 4 years and I suppose the end will depend on when you started counting. Were probably a year into it and with luck two to go.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousApril 9, 2009 at 4:38 AM

    All this happy talk about a recovery

    --Everyone I know also thinks everything will get better. That is just wishful thinking, just like delusional thinking.

    It could be that things will "get better" but it will take time, that is for sure . . . not just one year or a few years.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Global Economics and YouJuly 1, 2010 at 8:22 AM

    America Lost 50,000 manufacturing facilities in the last decade 2001 to 2010.

    ReplyDelete

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