Brother, can you spare a dime…

The real unemployment rate surpasses 20 per cent

Shadow Government Statistics can be found here.

Good news‼‼

The news: America's trade deficit declined again last month, according to the New York Times. The bad news entailed by the good: The trade deficit declined because trade volume declined.

More dismal economic news

The OECD depicts the global depression

The report (.pdf) begins by stating (the link can also be found at Open Source Geopolitics):

OECD composite leading indicators (CLIs) for December 2008 continue to point to a weakening outlook for all the major seven economies. The CLIs in most OECD countries have fallen to levels that were last seen during the oil shocks of the 1970s. The outlook has significantly deteriorated in the major non-OECD member economies who are now also facing strong slowdowns.

January’s bleak employment figures

The "Great American Jobs Machine" — Kaput….

The Bureau of Labor Statistics' latest employment situation report informs its readers that:

Nonfarm payroll employment fell sharply in January (-598,000) and the unemployment rate rose from 7.2 to 7.6 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Payroll employment has declined by 3.6 million since the start of the recession in December 2007; about one-half of this decline occurred in the past 3 months. In January, job losses were large and widespread across nearly all major industry sectors.

Moreover, the report is far more disturbing because, as EconoSpeak observes:

The civilian labor force participation rate was 65.7% as of December 2008 and had been as high as 66.4% as of December 2006, which means the rise in the unemployment rate actually understates the fall in the employment-population ratio, which fell from 61% as of December 2008 to 60.5% last month. The employment-population ratio had been 63.4% as of December 2006. While some of us were unimpressed with the employment-population ratio being only 63.4% given that this ratio was at or above 64% for much of Clinton's second term in office, I'd be incredibly happy if we could see the employment-population ratio approach this level in the next couple of years. Of course, this is not likely to happen unless Congress pass a stimulus bill over the objections of the Herbert Hoover faction.

Shadow economic statistics (12.2008)

The original charts can be found at the Shadow Government Statistics website.

Shadow economic statistics (11.2008)

You can find the original data here.