Written by Jeff Nielson Friday, 02 December 2011 13:20
Regular readers know that when I’m seeking insights into the serial U.S. economic propaganda that I often refer to the mind of the “compulsive liar”. After all, by definition all propagandists are compulsive liars. In the case of U.S. government statisticians, the “compulsion” is wanting to retain their employment.
Undoubtedly we have all met one or more compulsive liars in our own personal lives. Not only is it a common human vice, but by its very nature it is one which is always revealed by those who possess it. The “evolution” of all compulsive liars is identical and inevitable.
It begins somewhat innocently. An individual is in some sort of personal bind and thus resorts to a lie to extricate himself/herself from that dilemma. The liar is surprised/impressed with how well the lie worked in that situation, and so begins to use this “tool” more and more frequently.
The irony of lying, however, is that the less we do it, the more effective it is; and conversely the more we do it the less effective it becomes. The dynamics are obvious. Someone who rarely/never lies enjoys high credibility as a consequence of their penchant for honesty. Thus when such people lie the lie achieves maximum success – i.e. it deceives people to the greatest degree.
On the other hand, once someone becomes a liar it is an activity which must be less and less effective. To quote the old cliché, “…you cannot fool all of the people, all of the time.” As a result, with each new lie a larger and larger percentage of the population sees through the deceit – until eventually the liar has discredited himself with the majority, and is shunned and ignored.
This evolution is such a familiar pattern within our species that it has been immortalized by one of our most famous parables: “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”. Not only does that allegory precisely mirror the behavior pattern just described, but it also reveals to us why the compulsive liar is doomed to failure. His (her) lies inevitably become less and less plausible in absolute terms.
In the parable, the boy’s lies lose credibility as a matter of probabilities. If a boy sees a wolf once but it disappears before anyone else can see it that is quite plausible. However, if that boy (or even different people) repeatedly “cry wolf” but no one except the original spotter ever sees the “wolf” then the lie becomes less and less plausible.
In the real world, which is a much more complex place than the pastoral setting of the parable, compulsive liars tend to self-destruct in a different manner: through the body of lies becoming increasingly self-contradictory – rather than merely less plausible.
Here there is no better real-life example than the U.S. labour market, and the increasingly absurd serial lies of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The supposed (net) “jobs gains” which the BLS has been reporting for over two years now are all obvious fabrications. I have explained how/why these reports are fabrications in various ways in previous commentaries, however perhaps the most straightforward way to do so is simply to look at the weekly lay-off numbers.
Historically (i.e. back in the years when the U.S. economy was strong and healthy), it has never been able to consistently generate net employment gains when weekly layoffs were at an approximate level of 400,000 (as they are today) – high by historical standards. Today, however, the U.S. economy is the opposite of “strong and healthy”.
Interest payments on the staggering levels of personal, corporate, and government debt are a gigantic millstone around the neck of the U.S. economy. The pathetic weakness of this economy which has resulted from being bled-dry with interest payments is unmistakable. Even with the Federal Reserve permanently freezing interest rates at 0% (just like Japan did twenty years ago), it has been totally unable to breathe any life into this corpse.
Yet here we have the statistical charlatans at the BLS claiming that despite the high level of layoffs, and despite the crippling levels of debt that the U.S. economy is still generating net employment gains every month. Understand the arithmetic here. In order for the U.S. to produce net jobs-gains today (while weekly layoffs are consistently averaging over 400,000/week), it would have to be producing more new jobs on a gross basis than at any other time in history.
Adding in the numbers, roughly 1.75 million Americans have been getting “pink slips” every month via these weekly layoffs, consistently, throughout this entire pseudo-recovery. Obviously to produce positive jobs growth (month after month) the U.S. economy needs to generate more than 1.75 million new jobs that month (and every other month) – something it has never been able to do with layoffs at such high levels.
However, with the U.S. economy weaker than at any time in its entire 200+ year history, we have the liars at the BLS telling us month after month that the U.S. economy is producing more new jobs (on a gross basis) than at any other comparable period in its history. It is not remotely plausible, and on that basis alone the BLS has thoroughly discredited itself.
Now refer back to what I said earlier. Compulsive liars self-destruct because their lies start to openly contradict each other. Here we see how the serial lying of the BLS has now caught up with it.
Back in the real world, while ordinary Americans read about this mythical jobs growth month after month, they have seen that the U.S. economy continues to disintegrate. Foreclosures and the inventory of foreclosed homes remain at an all-time high. Mall vacancies have continued to rise throughout the entire “recovery”. Even local governments are going bankrupt.
Precisely how can a “consumer economy” be experiencing 2+ years of steady jobs-growth when every month more and more of its retail outlets are shutting down? Note that this comes at the same time that the U.S. government has gone from being the largest source of net jobs-growth in the U.S. economy to becoming a job-slasher itself.
Right behind the U.S. government in previously creating jobs is the U.S. construction sector – mired in its own permanent depression. So here we have the three biggest engines of job-creation in the U.S. economy: government, retail, and construction all being irreparably crippled – while each month the BLS launches into a new chorus of “jobs, jobs, jobs” Again, the contradictions here are so stark that on this basis as well the BLS has totally shredded its credibility.
Obviously the American public is becoming steadily more skeptical of this serial-lying. Proof of this can be found in the collapse over the past six months in U.S. “consumer confidence” numbers – which are now back to the same level as at the supposed “end of the recession”. When consumer confidence collapses while the sheep are being told month after month that a “U.S. economic recovery” is underway and there are supposedly steady gains in employment, we now see “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” manifested in real life.
What is the response of the BLS to this clear demonstration of suspicion/mistrust toward its numbers? As with all compulsive liars, the response has been to tell even bigger lies. And so (at last) we get to today’s most recent jobs-lies: the supposed gain of another 120,000 jobs combined with a huge plunge in the unemployment rate from 9.0% to 8.6% - one of the largest one-month declines in U.S. history.
Again we see lies contradicting lies. Those readers with a reasonably sophisticated understanding of the U.S. economy know that it needs to generate roughly 150,000 new jobs each month, just to keep up with population growth. This means that it is mathematically impossible for the 120,000 created this month to have reduced the U.S. unemployment rate, at all – let alone generating one of the largest one-month declines in history.
So how did the rate drop? There is only one mathematical possibility: large numbers of people (more than a half million) gave up looking for work, thus reducing the total percentage of those unemployed. Put another way, according to the BLS’ own numbers, the U.S. economy just experienced one of the largest one-month plunges in U.S. history in terms of people deserting the employment market.
Does it make sense that more than half a million Americans would suddenly give up looking for work in one month with the “U.S. economic recovery” now supposedly having continued for nearly three years? Does it make sense that a half million Americans would suddenly give up looking for work with supposedly more than 2 years of steady jobs-growth in the U.S., and 120,000 “new jobs” this month alone? Does it make sense that in a consumer economy that more than a half million Americans would suddenly give up looking for work – when the temporary hiring for the holiday season has supposedly just begun?
Does it make sense that more than a half million Americans would suddenly drop out of the work force when the number of Americans in the work force has already been plummeting for the last 10 years?
Does it make sense that a half million Americans would suddenly give up looking for work when wages for the average American have been steadily falling for the last 40 years?
With a lower and lower total number of Americans working, with those who do have jobs making less and less money, and with crippling debt levels requiring Americans to spend more every month just in paying interest on their debts, obviously the need for more jobs has not been this great since at least the Great Depression – and likely not even then... Finish reading @Source
