Interpreting unemployment data

The "full employment" unemployment rate in the United States is between four and five percent. I would suggest that four percent might actually tend to overheat the economy. The basic point is that one in 20 people on the average is in the process of changing jobs.

Unemployment hit 10 percent at the height of the Great Recession, a very high rate but less than that in the early Reagan administration. It is now down to just over eight percent. That is, it is less than it was before the Carter administration took over from the Republicans and cut unemployment in the late 1970s and just about as high as it got before the Clinton administration took over from the Republicans and cut unemployment (while balancing the budget) in the 1990s.

Put another way, the Obama administration has brought the economy 40 percent of the way back to full employment in its first term.

Do you really want to entrust the economy to the Republicans again, this time in the person of Mitt Romney?

Check this out:

Despite a veto threat from the White House, the House of Representatives passed legislation that would prevent $78 billion in defense spending cuts next year and supplant them with steep cuts to domestic programs, including Medicare, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program.

 Even if you like the Republican policies, do you want to vote for Mitt Romney?

"Mitt Romney’s prep school classmates recall pranks, but also troubling incidents"