I'm also not sure that it provides a method to track the self-employed who have become, for lack of a better term, self-UNemployed should the business fail. For instance, I don't report to anyone that I'm working or not. My customers are supposed to submit 1099s to the IRS to report their payment(s) to me (my pre-tax and pre-deduction income), but only about 10-20% actually do. If I close up shop then what the government will see is that I am no longer being reported on those few 1099s, and that I'm no longer paying my quarterly estimated tax. While they might make the connection if they see (through required reporting) that I took a job somewhere, they would otherwise have no way of knowing if I gave up working and am unemployed, retired early, took an extended vacation or sabbatical, etc.

I think the main point, though, is that the U3 is not a particularly good measure to use since the base labor pool number is highly dependent on government reporting based in part on those claiming unemployment. But, we're stuck with it since that's what they all use, inaccurate though it is. Any new administration could decide, upon inauguration or soime other time, to use one of the more accurate metrics, and explain what the measure means and why to use that number instead.

But then the problem is public perception. Suppose President Feelgood makes the change to use, say, U6. There will be a boatload of people who never understand what happened and will then say, "As soon as President Feelgood came into office, the unemployment rate spiked 4.7 points!"

Trilarion: Personally, I'm in favor of abolishing central banking wholesale. I don't know what the interest rate 'should' be, and I do not think that central bankers - in the US or anywhere else - have ever demonstrated that they have any defensible way of knowing or even approximating it, either. What I do know, and what they either do not know, or worse, see as a feature, not a bug, is that the present ZIRP strongly discourages saving and investing, and encourages chasing outsized risks, which sucks for people not in line for bailouts.

Thanks for that. Knackered after a long day at work and this is exactly what I needed!

This sounds familiar ;)...

I don't feel as though you've properly explained why they won't let you in the army. I'm thinking about joining myself, so could you elaborate a bit more? They won't let you in even though you've had eye surgery? I don't remember army recruitment, especially for enlisted, being so discriminating.

It's my favourite guy!

Military is like any other business: supply and demand. Supply of military jobs is low (drawdown, aka "peace dividend") and demand is high (unemployment is up), so the supply side is in charge. Back in the late-Cold War 80s, you needed all of your limbs and a pulse. Today, you need those in order to get your butt to the recruiting office, where you are then likely to be declined.

Surely you have some source more credible than the conspiracy-obsessed zero hedge?

Surely you have something better than a baseless claim?

I'm not saying your wrong, I'm just saying that Zero Hedge isn't widely trusted. They tend to draw a lot of parallels that, at best, are a stretch (and are dangerous to weak minds at worst).

But, if you want to take that as an attack and sarcastically copy my opener for no reason, then I think it's pretty clear that you are just looking for people to agree with you rather than any meaningful discourse.

who...the fuck...cares?!

Why couldn't you have said this in the first place?
I would have seen this as "meaningful discourse".

HereForTheBeer basically nailed it on the head. The troops who would normally leave the military for a private sector career are reluctant to do so because of all the underemployment and unemployment while more civilians are trying to apply to get out of the failing job market. As a result, the bureaucrats try to reduce enlistments by raising medical waiver standards to the point where they actually contradict previous policy. Even though the military was the number one buyer of the implantable collamer lenses and the bureaucracy admitted to me to granting waivers for the surgery, the recession created an excuse to contradict

http://www.healio.com/ophthalmology/refractive-surgery/news/print/ocular-surgery-news/%7B3B983BCC-204C-4ABE-BDCA-3881A6399A77%7D/ICL-safe-effective-US-Army-study-finds

It gets worse when the administration decides that hackable predator drones are a suitable substitute to a specialized infantry squad.

The troubles I'm having getting into the Army are directly linked to the recession and U-6 unemployment and it's another reason why I'm voting for Mitt Romney this year.

The feds in Canada are doing the same thing, raising the performance and hiring standards as the economy weakens.

Then again, that's historically always been the case when you are in an employers market. I fail to see how voting for the Mormon antichrist will change that. I guess if you want a job in the military, voting for the guy who ill start a 20-50 year war with Iran is a good strategy.