Unemployment Down? Maybe

Today the US Labor Department announced the jobless rate in America dropped to 8.5% and said it was the strongest sign yet of a sustained recovery.  Really?  I've worked in TV news for 30 years - and I can smell spin control when I read it.  What else are they going to say - the Labor Department is cheering for Obama to get re-elected, or they all lose their jobs!

If it's such good news then why does the broad measure of unemployment which includes people who want to work but have stopped looking and those working only part time but who want to work more, drop to only 15.2% from 15.6% in November?

And why are a record 23.7 Million Americans still out of work or underemployed?

To make matters worse - other studies show that the average job lost since the great recession began in 2008 paid $40.00 an hour - and the average job created since then pays only $15.00/hour.  Buried inside the Labor Department statistics was the fastest growing job category - couriers.  Yeah, those are high paying jobs all right.

LONDON (SHARECAST) - Though the tech-laced NASDAQ Composite index is making progress, the other two main US equity benchmarks are in the red, as some markets call into question what initially looked like better-than-expected US jobless figures for December.   Economists such as those at Barclays Capital are of the opinion that, “while we characterize this employment report as upbeat and consistent with the underlying acceleration in economic activity in the second half of last year, we suggest that the December data probably overstate the rate of improvement in labor market conditions."

Why talk economics in this "War Room Now" blog?.  Because if you haven't figured it out by now, all this is connected.  When the government debt and stock market bubbles hit the ceiling (sometime in the next couple of years) the United States and Western Europe will be in so much economic dire straits that our interests abroad will be easy pickings.  Do you really think Washington or NATO will come to the aid of Iraq when Shiite extremists in that country invite Iran to invade?  When China makes its long anticipated move in the South China Sea - do you really think the United States will have the monetary and political will to block them when our inflation rate is at 50% annually or higher?  An island hopping strategy in WWII almost bankrupted America - now, we're about to do that all by ourselves.  A tremendously costly campaign in the Asian-Pacific region will be wildly out of reach.  So long suckers, you are on your own.