From Zero Hedge:
At 64.2%, the labor force participation rate (as a percentage of the total civilian noninstitutional population) is now at a fresh 26 year low, the lowest since March 1984, and is the only reason why the unemployment rate dropped to 9% (labor force declined from 153,690 to 153,186). Those not in the Labor Force has increased from 83.9 million to 86.2 million, or 2.2 million in one year!
If you were to add even half that 2.2 million back in to the labor force, the unemployment rate would probably be above 10%. And even with such a huge reduction in the number of people looking for work, the best Bernanke can promise us is that employment will get back to normal in two or three years.
Of course, I don’t entirely trust the number – it seems odd that we’ve had so many straight months of declining labor force participation. Keep in mind that the keepers of the stats say the recovery began in 2009…surely by now we’d have an increase in participation, wouldn’t we? I mean, if there really was any genuine increase in wealth creation as opposed to a “wealth effect” created by massive amounts of fiat money.
And that, ultimately, is my worry – that we’re buying this “recovery” with fake money and mountains more debt and we’re not getting any net increase in national wealth for it. This means at the end of the day, even more debt will have to be supported by relatively less actual wealth. This is a recipe for complete economic collapse. Time will tell how this comes out, but if one wishes to bet, don’t bet that a printing press and borrowed money leads to prosperity.
UPDATE: More information on the unemployment numbers. “Bogus” seems an accurate description.
Blogs For Victory 