BUT MELVIN, HE'S SO HISTORIC: True Unemployment Rate Hits 23 Percent, Highest Since Great Depression

John Williams' ShadowStats charts the real unemployment rate by employing the methods the U.S. government used to use, before they became a political liability.

The seasonally-adjusted SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate reflects current unemployment reporting methodology adjusted for SGS-estimated long-term discouraged workers, who were defined out of official existence in 1994. That estimate is added to the BLS estimate of U-6 unemployment, which includes short-term discouraged workers.


The U-3 unemployment rate is the monthly headline number. The U-6 unemployment rate is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) broadest unemployment measure, including short-term discouraged and other marginally-attached workers as well as those forced to work part-time because they cannot find full-time employment.

In conjunction with that news, please consider a report from the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee (TBAC), which warns that when the Fed stops quantitative easing the interest on the federal debt will more than quadruple from $205 billion a year to $855 billion. Can you say, "Financial Meltdown", boys and girls?

Gee, I wonder what Paul "Subprime" Krugman and Henry "P.O.S." Blodget think of this?

That TBAC members are Violent, Tea-Bagging Racists™, no doubt?


Hat tip: BadBlue Money.