Economic Disinformation

President Barack Obama actually said this out loud to The New York Times:

T]hat [Keystone XL pipeline] oil is going to be piped down to the Gulf to be sold on the world oil markets, so it does not bring down gas prices here in the United States.

Because increased supplies don’t actually decrease prices.  Sure.

Actually, that distorting claim is of a piece with Obama’s steady drumbeat of distortions concerning the effects of his economic policy.

Here are the latest employment statistics, which Obama insists demonstrate that effectiveness and why he should be able to spend and tax even more.

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 162,000 in July, and the unemployment rate edged down to 7.4%….

That’s against ADP’s mid-week claim of 200,000 new jobs.  And what’s behind that apparent improvement to “only” 7.4% unemployment?

…long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was little changed at 4.2 million.  These individuals accounted for 37.0% of the unemployed.

The number of persons employed part time…was essentially unchanged at 8.2 million in July.

Additionally, the labor force participation rate (the per cent of our adult population actually trying to find work) dropped last month to 63.4%, approaching a 30-year low, as some 240,000 Americans gave up trying to find work in this stagnated-at-lousy economy.  That drop underlies the seeming drop in the headline unemployment rate.

That’s not all.  We see from The Wall Street Journal that actual economic expansion—the GDP growth rate—while still positive, is falling and has done so for some time.

Because Obama’s Keynesian politics have been so effective, and his claims about the wisdom of them have been so accurate.  Never mind that downward trend over the last 7 quarters.

The Dallas branch of the Fed has some interesting charts, also.  This one compares current unemployment duration with the length of unemployment in past recessions.  Careful readers will recognize the recession of ’74-’75 at the end of Jimmy Carter’s term, and the ’81-’82 recession at the start of Ronald Reagan’s terms.

This next graph shows…graphically…the effectiveness of Obama’s economic policy.  No matter who’s estimating, we just don’t catch up.

Last one.  This graph shows how the Obama Recovery compares with our history of economic recoveries.

But Obama says everything is Jake, and those Evil Republicans should get out of his way, so he can do even more of this.

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