U6
As I was doing some research on unemployment numbers I came across a gem of a news story. This economist was disparaging the President about his U6 unemployment numbers,
“U6, the broadest measure of unemployment and underemployment from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (No data available before 1994.) You can still argue that presidents really don’t have that much influence on the economy. But…supporters eagerly claimed that downward stretch…coinciding with the worst excesses of the housing bubble.”
, from that era (this book was first published in 1960) were not quite as socialistic as they are today. They were socialistic, but not as shrill. Perhaps one of the endorsements on the back cover says it best, “a reasoned attack on the productivity ethic and a concrete, provocative program for altering the economic structure to maintain a new social balance.” [emphasis added]
Sorry this is not a baseball post. Those of us living in Pittsburgh with the hapless Pirates; holders of the longest losing streak of all professional sports (17 years and counting) don’t talk about much about professional baseball. Our president gave his first pitch at a State of the Union speech and apparently did not hit the strike zone. I confess to not watching as I could not bear to see Ms. Pelosi popping up every 30 seconds, Obama’s use of the words “I” or “me” a gazillion times or his 
