Has the Obama Administration Turned Government Statistics into Soviet-Style Propaganda?

Right Wing News (h/t Larwyn's Links) discusses a New York Post article that claims that the Census Bureau has engaged in considerable fudging of its employment roll.  The Bureau hires people and then fires them after only a few hours work, then hires a replacement, then fires the replacement after a few hours, etc.  The churning of employment has, according to the article, potentially bloated the US Department of Labor's employment data. Thus, the Obama administration may have significantly distorted the non-seasonally adjusted 9.9% unemployment reported last month. John Crudele of the Post writes:

"Each month Census gives Labor a figure on the number of workers it has hired. That figure goes into the closely followed monthly employment report Labor provides. For the past two months the hiring by Census has made up a good portion of the new jobs...Labor doesn't check the Census hiring figure or whether the jobs are actually new or recycled. It considers a new job to have been created if someone is hired to work at least one hour a month...One hour! A month! So, if a worker is terminated after only one hour and another is hired in her place, then a second new job can apparently be reported to Labor . (I've been unable to get Census to explain this to me.)

I used to think that government statistics are accurate, even sacrosanct.  There have been increasing numbers of questions about inflation data.  For instance, the exclusion of house costs reduced the stated inflation rate from the early 1980s until the housing price collapse, when some pundits started to suggest that house prices should be included in the inflation rate.  It is not clear how quality adjustments are integrated into the inflation rate.  Nor is it clear how the size of a given product influences it.  For example, for the past 10 years or so I haven't bothered with a big charcoal grill, just purchasing a small hibachi from Wal-Mart.  Until recently they were about $20, but this year it was $25.  But the quality had been significantly reduced. It is much less steady and the materials used are cheaper.  Were those changes included in the inflation rate?

Increasingly government data seems like propaganda.  The Census Bureau's manipulation of the unemployment rate suggests that the Obama administration does not shy from the use of official information for propagandistic purposes.

Politics Has Two Purposes

I just received this e-mail from Andrew Matthews of the Capital District Tea Party.

Dear Professor Langbert,

I am a member of the Capital Dist. Tea Party Patriots and while checking on Rhinebeck area Teaparty movement I came across your name and decided to read your Blog.  I usually do not like the term "expert" mostly used by reporters.  But I am really proud to say that you really are an expert on what you write!

I came from India in 1973 and on the very first day in the country, after watching the evening news (October 1st, 1973) I decided to be a strong critic of America's mainstream press because of the "America hatred" I sensed in their report.  They have been highly successful in turning the entire country against Republicans and our free-market system because of the only one sinner in America at that time - Richard Nixon! I have been a peaceful political activist ever since.

I have seven blogs which have not been updated lately because of lack of time.  Taxracket.blogspot.com is one of them.

If you ever decide to run for any national political office you can count on my vote.  Keep up the great work.

May I also give you one of my quotes?  Years ago I was trying to explain to plain average people what POLITICS is all about and why every one has a personal interest in taking part in it.  Finally I came up with the following truth.  

"POLITICS has only two purposes, (1) To protect what you have and (2) To TAKE what other have!"

At the core anything else humans do we can detect either of these two motives.  If you are running for any office please make this your clarion call!

 

Letter to Michael Moore: Please Be Transparent

Dear Mike:  Have you published a list of the sources of your financing of all your film and journalistic ventures since the beginning of your career?  As well, have you published a list of the individuals with whom you negotiated in obtaining distribution for Roger and Me and other of your films?

If not, I would appreciate it if you could publish such a list.  Just as business ventures are expected to have a sufficient degree of ethics to make their balance sheets and profit-and-loss statements public, so should you have the ethics to publish those with whom you have done business and the sources of your financing.

Thanks,

Mitchell Langbert

Government Waste and Wall Street

I just sent this letter to the Olive Press, our local newspaper:

Dear Editor:

Several local acquaintances have expressed surprise at the American media’s avoidance of discussion of waste in government.  “Why would the media support government waste?” they wonder.

Wall Street and the banking industry benefit from interest and sales commissions generated by the issuance of treasury bonds, bills and notes.  The more government waste, the more spending, the more government debt, the more Wall Street profits.  The left has been more aggressive in expanding government and so Wall Street likes it better than the right. In 2009, the first year of the Obama administration, Obama significantly increased total federal spending as percentage of gdp by ten percent over the Bush administration.  This causes the federal government to issue more treasury securities.    

It is true that Wall Street loved Bush’s wars, but the waste of the Obama administration does it better.  Wall Street profits by dealing and banks profit by holding bonds, which they can sell to the Federal Reserve Bank in exchange for monetary reserves, a ten fold multiple of which they can lend to the public at interest.  Thus, a single treasury security can generate (a) sales commissions to brokers; (b) interest payments to banks; and (c) a means by which commercial bank loans and the money supply can be expanded up to ten times the amount of the bond. 

Who owns the media?  The same Wall Street firms and commercial banks that profit from the government bonds.  One can tell which party is better for Wall Street by the degree to which it receives support from the banker-owned media.  Virtually all television stations and newspapers support the Democrats.  Since they are banker owned (for instance, MS-NBC is owned by General Electric) the party that is best for Wall Street and the banking industry is clear.  The media would not support the Democrats if they were not the best party for Wall Street.  Chris Matthews is a good GE man.

The Democratic Party’s spirit is embodied in Paul Pelosi, a corrupt San Francisco business man who has benefited directly from a range of subsidies that have been adopted under the aegis of the Speaker of the House, his wife.  As well, a host of billionaires and multi-millionaires, to include Bill Gates, George Soros, Warren Buffett, Steven Spielberg and Larry Page, have advocated the agenda of Barack Obama.  Wall Street contributed to Obama two to one over McCain, a much better ratio than Bush received, and Obama has rewarded and will continue to reward them.  The recent  financial industry law is an example.

  

Sincerely,

Mitchell Langbert