Finally, someone dares to come out with figures that I had pointed to as late as August 6, 2009, that the unemployment rate, currently officially listed at 9.5% is actually closer to 16% in real effects on people and the economy.

As reported in an August 27, 2009 article by MoneyNews.com, the real US unemployment rate is 16 percent if persons who have dropped out of the labor pool and those working less than they would like are counted, a Federal Reserve official said Wednesday. The full story can be found by clicking on the MoneyNews.com link provided.

“If one considers the people who would like a job but have stopped looking — so-called discouraged workers — and those who are working fewer hours than they want, the unemployment rate would move from the official 9.4 percent to 16 percent, said Atlanta Fed chief Dennis Lockhart.

Of course, the Obama administration is not considering these people in the unemployment figures they support, and to be fair, neither did the Bush administration. Fact are fact and they are frequently manipulated to paint a better or worse picture than the reality of the moment. Getting news from multiple sources is critical if you wish to become or remain a critical thinker. No one side has a monopoly on the truth, but the truth should always be sought out and held out as the only condition acceptable for discourse.

Many economist say, and I believe, that we are in a W shaped recovery. The initial bust has come and gone and we are slowly improving. However, the improvement we are seeing is the result of artificial stimulus. Once that stimulus runs out of momentum, another fall will once again damage the economy and the outlook for the future. A recovery will happen, but this second recovery will occur much slower and it is my belief that unemployment in the best of terms will be in the double digits and made worse by double digit inflation.