Is the Government Fudging the Unemployment Numbers?

A fascinating article over at Mish’s – the concern being that the government is lying about the number of unemployed. Boiled down, we seem to be spending money on unemployment as if there are 14 million people eligible for benefits – but the government claims only 9.6 million on the rolls. The linked article states that we spent on unemployment benefits in December of 2009 $700 million more than we spent on all other federal salaries. Something doesn’t add up here.

Our only defense against belief that fraud is being perpetrated? The concept that President Barack Obama and his Chicago-style administration simply would not pull a fast one on us.

I’m not comforted.