Folks a much harder rain than you or i could ever imagine is about to fall. The un-manipulated numbers are more like 15% and the good ship lolly pop is sinking faster than You can imagine

Thank G-d my meager capital is invested in Chinese and Indian blue chips, and a solar, Chinese, of course.

We're gonna sink faster than the Titanic. This bites and not in a good way either!

Pawed.

And You sure are right my dear LadyMikochan

Somebody help me - i can't resist beauty and innate intelligence. - I just can't.

AND "Temp work masking joblessness"

By FRANK BASS, Associated Press Writer – Fri Jun 5, 9:31 am ET
TOWNSHEND, Vt. – For weeks, Greg Noel roamed the spine of the Green Mountains with a handheld GPS unit, walking dirt roads and chatting with people as he helped create a map of every housing unit in the United States.
Work was good: The sun was out, the snow was gone and the blackflies hadn't begun to hatch. But now that work is over and Noel, 60, and more than 60,000 other Americans hired in April to help with the 2010 census are out of work once more.
It's a familiar predicament in today's economy, in which some 2 million people searching for full-time work have had to settle for less, and unemployment is much higher than the official rate when all the Americans who gave up looking for jobs are counted, too.

_The official rate also doesn't include "involuntary part-time workers," or the 2.2 million people like Noel who took a part-time job because that's all they could get, plus those whose work hours dropped below the full-time level. Once those 9.1 million workers are added to the unemployment mix, the rate would be SIXTEEN.4% percent.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_becoming_a_statistic

I don't get the optimism over this number. "not as bad as expected" doesn;t cut it for me. (Rated)

Aw, I never considered my looks to be much, I'm just 'me' Your compliment is very appreciated though.

We cashed out what few stocks we had in the market, its in a safety deposit box.

The feds are very good at manipulating statistics with a positive spin. Look at what they do with inflation. The government formula to calculate inflation is beyond absurd.

Thanks for stopping by, roger - i posted ny comment BEFORE I saw the Yahoo article 15% I said, and the article say 16.4%.

I'll consider that close enough.

LadyMikoChan, You are just too modest. Sess knows that, and so do I. with all due respect.

I think, even Pup knows that, too.

Dogs and puppies are more perceptive than most people think.

You know, unemployment is a lagging indicator. The losses are slowing, and other leading indicators have already turned around. The recovery may be jobless, but the deflation has eased.

Beyond absurb I'd echoe Your coments. LittleWillie.

You may think You're little, but Your thunderous words are anything but little.

I've been reading Your blog, so:

Please stop by more often - we DO have much in common.

Jobless rate are so horrible. Looking for a job really sucks right now. It is really sad and getting worse.

The crucial problem with the economy was that which led to the job losses. It was not the job losses themselves. The crucial problem was the financial crisis. Banks were not lending to banks or businesses. Now spending has been greatly reduced, and not return for some time, so the recovery may be flat with respect to job growth. But, the structure of the financial system which led to the crisis is beginning to be altered. Some regional banks in the midwest have quadrupled their stock prices in the last few months. The stability is returning. Unemployment will likely stop growing by Autumn or early 2010. If unemployment is our only problem going forward, we escaped the worst of it.

Yes, i agree with You, Bill but we are printing money at such a pace that hyperinflation is right around the corner.

Clues lie in the price of oil and gold, traditionally safe havens from inflation.

Thanks for weighing in - I'm t check the market right now.

You all are right. The real jobless rate is substantially higher. Let's see, I last worked the 3rd week of January. Got turned down for unemployment comp in mid February. I'm not considered part of the unemployed but shit, I sure feel unemployed!

I saw the article about the temp working for the Census Bureau too. The one that brought a tear to my eye was on Yahoo yesterday about a guy working as a reservation manager at a restaurant yesterday for $25K per year. He had been a wall street trader making $200K per year. He got laid off and now he serves people he used to work with. He and his family aren't sure what's going to happen to them and their $6200 a month mortgage.
I have a hard time working up a lot of sympathy for the guy.

my housecleaner just told me she is about to lose her house.

Oil briefly touched '0 BBL and gold holding steady at 980 with a rising RSI - it will soon break, 1,000 and touch off a gold mania like
I think it was '80 - be sure to get out before the inevitable crash back down.

Me, I'm a buy and hold on my stocks and don't pay attention to the daily fluctuations.

I did my DD - everyone said my ACH would be down due to the end of negotiations with Rio Tinto for an additional 10%. It's up a tad today.

My solar, SOl, another Chinese stock listed on the american boards is up 12%, 12% and 14% the last three sessions - I shoulda' bought a larger position to begin with - I typically position in with 1/3 of a position at a time.

I shoulda' known to go whole hog on this one - my mistake.

Shoulda, coulda, woulda!

Mark i would say if Jesus Christ would have been elected President last November we would still hit 10% in unemployment due to the fact we were in recession probably 2 years prior to its announcement. I know that bail out money directly saved 5,000 state jobs in Tennessee where I live. I know 3 close friends whose jobs were saved directly. I doubt highly that McCain would have achieved that.

Otherwise , I agree, we face a long uphill battle that will test "Real Americans" like you and I.

The 'Good Ship Lollypop' is indeed sinking. Those 'experts' who consult some arcane "market indicators" are being led down the garden path, as they usually are, by manipulated numbers. Now that unemployment insurance is running out for many people, they are no longer being included as "unemployed" in the figures put out.

I have personally been pulling everything I have out of the market and quietly filling my basement with things which can be trade items when money goes the way of the dodo; flour, sugar, salt, medical supplies, water purification pills, water distillation kits, etc. Everything is vacuum sealed in plastic before it is stored.

If things go sideways, I'll be a trader. If they don't, and our economy recovers, those goods can be retailed in a few years for well above what I paid for them. (Whatever else happens, it will include monstrous inflation if we manage to pull out of this recession-bec0ming-a-depresion).

If I were younger, I'd move to China.