I don't believe that they are conspiring to prevent false statistics. But I think it is highly likely their statistics are inaccurate. We will see revisions down the road. We always see revisions down the road.

If the American people are looking for change, it needs to be radical change, and it is not going to come from the elite who finance our politicos and who are our politicos.

It's got to come from the grassroots.

Consider one crucial measure, the ratio of employment to population. In June 2007, around 63 percent of adults were employed. In June 2009, the official end of the recession, that number was down to 59.4. As of June 2011, two years into the alleged recovery, the number was: 58.2.

These may sound like dry statistics, but they reflect a truly terrible reality. Not only are vast numbers of Americans unemployed or underemployed, for the first time since the Great Depression many American workers are facing the prospect of very-long-term -- maybe permanent -- unemployment. Among other things, the rise in long-term unemployment will reduce future government revenues, so we're not even acting sensibly in purely fiscal terms. But, more important, it's a human catastrophe. Krugman

According to the data, the average income for American taxpayers fell to $54,283 -- a drop of $3,516, or about 6.1 percent, between 2008 and 2009. Not only that, but the overall number of taxpayers -- that is, individuals or married couples filing with the IRS -- fell by almost two million.
...
The number of 1040EZ returns -- the simplified tax form for filers who have no dependents, and whose taxable income is less than $100,000 -- fell by 23 percent between 2008 and 2009.

The decline in 1040EZs represents low-income taxpayers who lost their jobs and couldn't remain a part of the workforce, Kleinbard told The Huffington Post.

"What you're seeing is people at the bottom rung of the economic ladder being taken off the economic ladder entirely," Kleinbard said. link

Basically, it boils down to this: "don't worry your pretty little heads about anything":

President Obama counseled supporters Wednesday evening "not to get too bogged down" in details when explaining his record to voters during the campaign.

The president, in a video conference with supporters Wednesday night from Chicago, encouraged his backers to focus on broad themes when it comes to his policies on taxes and war, instead of the specifics of individual policies. "I think the key is not to get too bogged down in detail," the president said last night.
...
Obama said his campaign, led by Jeremy Bird, his national field director, would take the lead in ensuring that volunteers have good talking points to take out on the campaign trail. The president said his administration would also lay out new initiatives that would help his grassroots volunteers sell his record.

This is actually a reprise of the 2008 campaign's quasi religious "how I came to Obama" strategy: link

He knows "it's the economy stupid" and the primary threat to re-election is the state of the economy as 2012 approaches...

But if 9-10% UE is normal, well, nobody talks much about it.

Get the hands of the rich directly into our pockets.  Increase the income gap all the more and watch the economy erode all the more.

Isn't all of this like... Well, we don't want X pollutant in the atmosphere so we have reduced it to .0001% but now we want a billion dollars and to shut down 500,000 jobs to reduce it to .00001%.

Corbett's essentially on the payroll of the Marcellus Shale drillers. Refuses to tax them  - which would have been an huge windfall for PA.

We have to hope the EPA comes down hard on fracking, but they've been more or less taken over, so I'll be surprised if the studies say much more than "undetermined" whether fracking poisons the groundwater or the air....

My point is, this is not just happening by coincidence, or natural selection; it is a planned, and, so far, brilliantly executed strategy to permanently change the structure and definition of the United States of America.

The United States has become about protected markets though, it isn't shared risk and our markets aren't a reflection of our economic health anymore either. They are the only thing with any health at all, and it is that way because of team Geithner and what he and those who follow him thinks makes the world go round.  And by the time people cut from that cloth explain to you what makes the world go round...well, it's sexy.  It's a whole lot sexier than what I will be doing in an hour after the garbage comes.  They pick up trash on Friday, but I cleaned the freezer out on Saturday and the heat here has been a 100 degrees all week...I see bleach in my future :)

They weren't taken for fools.  Their party simply left them.

Your parents are brilliant, balanced, flexible thinkers to admit that things aren't what they were or aren't what they seem, and then change their thinking accordingly.  Some people probably never will admit this or do this.  

"The only thing worse than Democrats are Republicans"

His rude awakening came when he realized that the communists weren't all that great either :)

My other favorite quote is:

"Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others"

Monetary policy has failed because we are in a balance sheet recession. The private sector has enormous debt that it must pay off if it is to go back to spending. The only way to get that money into people's hands debt-free is for the government to spend it into the economy, i.e. stimulus, which is a fiscal policy.

All monetary policy does is swap one form of financial asset for another. Quantitative easing was undertaken in the mistaken belief that it would spur bank lending by increasing bank reserves via the 'money multiplier' concept of fractional reserve lending. This failed because banks don't have qualified customers to lend to, and loans aren't really created automatically out of reserves. Banks lend first and then obtain reserves afterwards if they need them.

What QE did do was drive up commodity prices because so many market participants expected that QE would be inflationary, so they dove into commodities as a classic hedge against inflation. It also drained money from the economy in the form of interest payments on treasuries going to the Fed instead of to the private sector.

And

It is clear now that dems, liberals and moderates support the deal in greater numbers than conservatives.

    How does this correlate to the message of betrayal this was supposed to have sent and the victory in public opinion the GOP was supposed to have won.

I dont recall pundits saying the GOP won the PR war. But the PR war is less important than whether or not the deal is any good. I know not to you, but to reality. When the economy slows and unemployment rises Obama can speechify on how he won the narrative.

 I am still trying to connect the reality as viewed by the average observer with the reality as viewed by the pundits on both sides.

    Everyone seems to think this was a huge political loss for the dems except most people.

what are all those job creators doing with the tax cuts they have been getting for the past 10 years

Investing it overseas and buying back their own stock to enrich CEOs and other officers who'll cash in stock options.

When wealth is concentrated this happens.

By some estimates, U.S. corporations are sitting on about $2 trillion in cash and banks have returned to profitability, so a lot of money is sitting idle, waiting for profitable investment opportunities.  Economists have noted that there is considerable evidence that the growth of consumer demand is too anemic in the U.S. to spur much investment here, so the investment eye is on the emerging markets of the world where real incomes and consumer demand are growing.

Never thought I'd see the day when loansharking was done by the Bank of something, but the guys with enforcers offered better rates and deals.

and if I don't pay on time, it doesn't hurt my credit rating. First it hurts my stomach once weekly for a month or so, then it hurts my kidneys for the same amount of time. Eventually I get a broken leg, and the vig stops while I can't work.