Roger Cuddy

Now available in a single video is Lawrence Reed’s Lessons from the Great Depression. Thanks to Nelsio.

So the December 09 unemployment rate held steady at 10% … yeah right. This goes to the issue of how to read and use economic indicators. The rate stayed were it was because a million people were dropped from the count of unemployed due to going passed the magic 27 week number.

It’s very important when reading the BLS Employment Situation report that you understand how it’s laid out and all the values that need analyzed. The report is available at BLS Employment Situation report and I refer you first to table A. Look for the Civilian labor force data at the top of the table and the not in labor force values just below. You will see that 847000 workers were removed from the labor force numbers and added to the not in labor force. Those workers now do not count in the version of the unemployment number that is most used by the media and politicians. I also advise examining table C and all the information it gives on the decline of the percentage of the available population that participates in the workforce.

There are actually 6 different measures of employment that BLS provides. These are know as U-1 through U-6 which each providing a relatively greater inclusion of who is counted as unemployed. To get the more complete number that includes workers who have been unemployed for a longer period of time and those that BLS considers as marginally attached.

using the December 09 numbers the U-3 values are the ones presented by the media and were  10%, the U-6 value however shows 17.3%. Which is approriate for your use is of course dependent on your task but I imagine we can guess why the lower value gets the press time.

On closing, The Bureau of Labor Statistics is one of your most important sites for economic indicators. Learn to use it and explore what is available.

Gross is one of the top money managers in the world and his views are always worth reading but his latest investment outlook is extremely important and timely. Do yourself a favor and read the January 2010 Investment Outlook .

There are two items I always ensure are in my briefcase before I go out the door. My much abused and scarred HP-12C and a Knoppix DVD. Klaus has now released version 6.2 of the best live CD around. Some notable changes and upgrades include:

• LXDE desktop for those low resource situations that still occur surprisingly frequently.
• KDE is now version 4.3.3
• Gnome version 2.28
• Kernel 2.6.31.6
• Xorg 7.4

The CD version has been shrunk a bit to make it easier to remaster your own custom version. The DVD weighs in at 8GB of applications compressed onto a normal dicsc. The only caveat I’ve found so far is make sure you get the 18 November version as there was a keymap imperfection on the first release set. upgrade your Knoppix now http://www.knoppix.com/

It’s not exactly a secret that I think Gentoo is the perfect balance of customization and still being able to use good package management tools. Gentoo turned 10 this October and I’d just like to wish the team many more to come.

A new page Free Books has been added to the site. It’s accessible through the menu at the top. It is simply a collection of short descriptions of books I think are worth reading and links to obtain the text free from various sites. The first two items added are:

Carl Menger was the founder of what is called the Austrian School of Economics and his Principles of Economics is simply an incredible book. Available in PDF from Mises.org Principles of Economics Plus there is a Study Guide Menger Quote: Money is not an invention of the state. It is not the product of a legislative act. The sanction of political authority is not necessary for its existence.

Frederic Bastiat will show on this list several times but for a first exposure to his biting wit and intellectual edge I recommend Economic Sophisms. Available online at Econlib Economic Sophisms First published in 1845, you will be amazed at how few words would need changed to apply to our current time. Bastiat Quote: The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else.

Every one should check out Shock: Global temperatures driven by US Postal Charges.

A well done bit of satire although too many may not even recognize it as such. The author uses logic every bit as sound as most of the drivel that is bandied around the climate change debate. No matter which side you are on you should be able to use this presentation to make fun of at least several of the other side’s arguments. Check out the original.

Original post edited to include chart from joannenova.com.au since several club members couldn’t access the image. At pman’s suggestion we also removed all tags. It’s fun and cool but don’t need this popping up on a search engine.

How great would it be to see a US senator or representative say this!

Jim Rogers covers a wide variety of current economic topics. I’ve always found Mr. Rogers to be very clear spoken in his beliefs. A fresh breeze when so many speakers will not commit to even their views.

If you’re a fan of Robert Schiller (Homepage, Wikipedia) then you should follow through his open course ware at Yale. Check out http://oyc.yale.edu/economics/financial-markets/content/sessions.html for the recorded lectures, notes and resources.