Could the Real Unemployment Rate be Near 22%?

Mac Slavo pointed out in his article on the Seeking Alpha site this morning (and I quote generously from his article) that “the official U-3 unemployment number is 10.2%. The broader and more comprehensive official unemployment number, the U-6, is at 17.5%. The U-6 counts all the people that want a job but gave up, all the people with part-time jobs that want a full-time job, and all the people who dropped off unemployment benefits because their unemployment benefits ran out. John Williams at Shadowstats.com suggests that real unemployment is actually running at 22%, which, by our calculation, is approaching Great Depression unemployment numbers.”

Mr. Slavo included some “choice quotes from those we’ve entrusted with our economy:”

President Obama (February 13, 2009):

"That’s a story I’m confident will be repeated at companies across the country — companies that are currently struggling to borrow money selling their products, struggling to make payroll, but could find themselves in a different position when we start implementing the plan,” Obama said. “Rather than downsizing, they may be able to start growing again. Rather than cutting jobs, they may be able to create them again.”

David Axelrod, Senior Adviser to President Obama on whether the stimulus plan will keep unemployment from reaching 10 percent (February 15, 2009):

That’s our hope – that’s our hope. There’s no doubt that without it, that’s where we were looking: double-digit unemployment. That’s what we’re trying to forestall.

Nobel Prize Recipient and Economist Paul Krugman on the benefits of trillion dollar deficit spending spending (January 21, 2009):

I’m looking for the unemployment rate. I want to see the unemployment rate stay safely below 10 percent, which is by no means a foregone conclusion. And I want to see it coming down notably next year.

Larry Summers, Lead Economic Adviser to President Obama (January 18, 2009):

I don’t think so. I think while we’re going to see some substantial job losses, frankly what is important about the president’s program here is that it is going to contain what would otherwise be just a vicious cycle, people spend less, therefore they earn less. We’re going to contain this problem.

Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve testifying before Congress’s joint economic committee (May 5, 2009):

Currently, we don’t think it will get to 10 percent. Our current number is somewhere in the 9s.

How disconnected from reality can our Representatives be to pass a healthcare "reform" bill that creates enormous new taxes, penalties, fees, and fines on America's hard-working families in the midst of such horrendous unemployment and economic adversity?

Click here to read all of Mr. Slavo’s And Bernanke Didn’t Think Unemployment Would Reach 10% article.

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