“No Jobs For Americans” – By Paul Craig Roberts (January 11, 2014)

“The alleged recovery took a direct hit from Friday’s payroll jobs report. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the economy created 74,000 new jobs in December.

“Wholesale and retail accounted for 70,000 of the jobs or 95.5%. It is likely that the December wholesale and retail hires were temporary for the Christmas shopping season, which doesn’t seem to have been very exuberant, especially in light of Macy’s decision to close five stores and lay off 2,500 employees. It is a good bet that these December hires have already been laid off.

“A job gain of 74,000, even if it is real, is about half of what is needed to keep the unemployment rate even with the population growth. Yet the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the unemployment rate fell from 7.0% to 6.7%. Clearly, this decline in unemployment was not caused by the reported 74,000 jobs gain. The unemployment rate fell because Americans unable to find jobs ceased looking for employment and, thereby, ceased to be counted as unemployed.

“In America the unemployment rate is a deception just like everything else. The rate of American unemployment fell because people can’t find jobs. The fewer the jobs, the lower the unemployment rate.

“I noticed today that the financial media presstitutes were a bit hesitant to hype the drop in the unemployment rate when there was no jobs growth to account for it. The Wall Street and bank economists did their best to disbelieve the jobs report as did some of the bought-and-paid-for academic economists. Too many interests have a stake in the non-existent recovery declared 4.5 years ago to be able to admit that it is not really there.

“I was also struck by the report that the gain in employment of waitresses and bartenders, normally a large percentage of the job gain, was down to 9,400 jobs, which were offset by declines elsewhere, such as the layoff of local school teachers.

“Aren’t Washington’s priorities wonderful? $ 1,000 billion per year in Quantitative Easing, essentially subsidies for 6 banks ‘too big to fail,’ and nothing for school teachers. It should warm every Republican’s heart.

“A tiny bright spot in the payroll jobs report is 9,000 new manufacturing jobs. The US manufacturing workforce has declined so dramatically since jobs offshoring became the policy of American corporations that 9,000 jobs hardly register on the scale. Fabricated metal products, which I think is roofing metal, accounted for 56% of the manufacturing jobs. Roofing metal is not an export. Employment in the production of manufactured products that could be exported, such as ‘computer and electronic equipment,’ and ‘electronic instruments’ declined by 2,400 and 3,500 respectively.

“Clearly this is not a payroll jobs report that provides cover for the looting of the prospects of ordinary Americans by the financial and offshoring elites. One can wonder how the BLS civil servants who produced it can avoid retribution. It will be interesting to see what occurs in the January payroll jobs report.” –

“In America,” Dr. Roberts wrote, “the unemployment rate is a deception just like everything else.” How true. One of the best illustrations of such deceptions is the incredible theft of taxpayer money perpetrated in 2008 by our distinguished leaders. In our Vol. XXXVII, Art. 38 commentary we wrote about Bloomberg’s investigations into the bank bailout. Bloomberg, you recall, had to sue the Federal government for access to the events regarding the US bank bailout. Here’s what we wrote:

– “In 2008, President Bush, Secretary Paulson and Chairman Bernanke crafted a bank bailout program they termed TARP or the Toxic Asset Relief Program. It was created in the middle of the night, over a weekend, because if they didn’t act by Monday they said, there wouldn’t be an America anymore. With confusion and fear in his eyes, President Bush handed the reins of power to the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, and instead of limiting himself to the $ 700 billion Congress grudgingly approved, Hank Paulson printed $ 7 trillion dollars, funneled it through the Federal Reserve and handed it over to the world’s biggest banks with no strings attached and in total secrecy.”

Another illustration of a deception perpetrated by the Federal government – and on going deception, by the way – is the fudged number of casualties incurred by our armed forces in the Iraq/Afghanistan wars. The presstitutes cited by Dr. Roberts almost daily report that U.S. casualties are in the 3,000 to 4,000 range. That baloney is for public consumption. Read again our Vol. XXII, Art. 30 commentary where we quote one of the most respected and beloved men who ever lived:

– “This topic brings me to that worst outcrop of herd life, the military system, which I abhor … This plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with all possible speed. Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism – how passionately I hate them.” – Albert Einstein

– “And this from the Department of Veterans Affairs, dated way back on December 11, 2007:

– “Total U.S. Military Gulf War Deaths: 73,846
– Total number permanently disabled: 1,620,906

– “Why were the ‘official’ government numbers of 3,777 deaths as of December 11, 2007 so low? The government doesn’t want the 73,846 dead soldiers killed in the Gulf War to be compared to the 55,000 U.S. soldiers killed in Vietnam, otherwise the American public will realize that the Iraq fiasco is even worse than the Vietnam one.” –

Presstitutes, is how Dr. Roberts refers to the stooges of the government controlled media, whose intent has always been to pull the wool over our eyes. And in this regard, when poking fun at his gullible audience, the American humorist Will Rogers would always find a way to slip the following remark into his monologue: “I only know what I read in the newspapers.”