(ThyBlackMan.com) President Joe Biden on November 7, 2024, said these words in the Rose Garden of the White House, “Setbacks are unavoidable, but giving up is unforgivable. We all get knocked down, but the measure of our character, as my dad would say, is how quickly we get back up. Remember, a defeat does not mean we are defeated.” … Now we have 74 days to finish the term — our term. Let’s make everyday count. That’s the responsibility we have to the American people.” Mr. Biden has a great opportunity to present a gift that will continually benefit American workers, professional, blue-collar, union, and working-class Americans, everywhere. And in giving this powerful proverbial gift, he helps the Democratic party, and the nation, recover, as he departs the White House.
Defeat in an election like the 2024 election should inspire change and needed substantive change, and if change is going to be effective, it usually comes from the top. This is why it is so important Mr. Biden takes the lead. Biden and Democrats can still help working-class Americans and assuage their concerns when it comes to the economy. President Biden can and needs to shift his position when it comes to our unemployment rates saying, the U-3 category rate from the table of Alternative Measures of Labor Underutilization, is comprehensive of our monthly unemployment situation.” It is not!
He can simply say, when presenting our November Unemployment Situation, on December 6th or even before then, the Biden-Harris administration no longer embraces or supports the Clinton era promotion of U-3 as being comprehensive of our monthly unemployment situation. That is, it. That is the GIFT. President Joe Biden needs no additional authority from Congress to say this – it is his decision. Just like the Clinton administration chose to wrongly promote the U-3 category rate as being comprehensive, Biden can rightfully choose to promote the U-6 category rate, agreed to by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) economists, as being the most comprehensive unemployment rate among the six category rates in the table of Alternative Measures of Labor Underutilization. The U-6 category rate for October, which is 7.7%, is almost twice that of the U-3 rate.
If Biden and Harris do not do this, it demonstrates how deeply they are committed to underreporting the unemployment rates of All American workers. They continue to distort our economy and devalue American workers as human beings, as by doing this, Biden and Democrats hide the number of layoffs of All working-class Americans. Here is an example of the distortion I am speaking of. Right now, the U-3 category rate of unemployment is flashing 4.1%. 4.1% means the United States is enjoying a strong and full employment economy. Common sense would suggest, this is just simply not the truth. You cannot have a strong economy, when credit card debt is at an all-time high of $1.17 trillion. This one indicator alone should cause alarms to go off among the Biden-Harris administration. Paycheck to paycheck individuals, among working-class Americans are not able to pay their bills. They don’t have enough cash on hand and are using plastic to not only pay their bills but in some instances are regularly buying groceries using credit cards.
Additionally, President Biden not acknowledging his administration underreports the unemployment rates of working-class Americans may have been a factor in VP Harris losing the presidential election. Had the real unemployment rate been acknowledged – 7.7% October unemployment rate – she may have been able to say she would adopt a comprehensive policy to grow the economy, because there would have been a clear mandate to grow the economy. Harris could have offered a 10% Consumer Tax Cut, to grow the economy, aimed at Baby Boomers, which would have cut into Mr. Trump’s base. African American voting for her in large numbers would not have been an issue, either, as their unemployment rate of 10.4% would have been exposed and addressed.
Admitting U-3 is not comprehensive of the nation’s monthly Job situation, rights the nation economic ship, and puts an end to the distortion of the United States economy. Putting this obligation on the shoulders of incoming President Trump maybe seen by his administration, as unjust. The Trump administration can reason, and rightfully so, Democrats originated the scam of undercounting/underreporting our unemployment rates – Democrats should end the scheme. Would Trump change the rate back to the U-3 category rate, after Biden and Democrats declare the official, and most comprehensive unemployment rate for November is, the U-6 category rate? It is doubtful, as even Trump would have to justify such a change to working-class Americans, and as has been illustrated, in past articles, there is no such justification. (https://thyblackman.com/2024/11/11/it-is-post-presidential-election-what-economic-solutions-should-we-embrace-this-question-confronts-all-of-us/).
Finally, Biden, by declaring the U-6 category rate, as the most comprehensive rate of unemployment, needing no additional authority from Congress, as stated above, comes into agreement with his economic team. They, in the past questioned his use of the U-3 category rate, as illustrated by their comments, perhaps risking their Jobs to do so.
Janet Yellen, President Biden’s Secretary of the Treasury, on February 18, 2021, in an interview on CNBC, commenting on the nation’s January unemployment rate said, “We have an unemployment rate that if properly measured in some sense, is really close to 10%.” The U-3 category rate, Biden’s official jobless rate, for the month of January flashed 6.3%, while the most comprehensive, and real unemployment rate, U-6 was 11.1%.
Lael Brainard, the former Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve, and President Joe Biden’s current Director of his National Economic Council, stated in an article on February 24, 2021 in the Wall Street Journal the following: “When we take into consideration the more than 4 million workers who have left the labor force since the pandemic started, as well as misclassification, the unemployment rate is close to 10 percent currently—much higher than (Biden’s) headline unemployment rate of 6.3 percent.”
Biden’s former Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, Dr. Cecilia Rouse, on April 2, 2021, on the White House web site, stated, she felt the March unemployment rate was around 9 %, rather than the 6% official unemployment rate Biden was touting. The real unemployment rate, the U-6 category rate, clocked in at 10.7%.
Jerome Powell, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve at the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee news conference on January 27, 2021, said, “The real unemployment rate is close to 10 percent (for December) if you include people that have left the labor force.” At that time, the U-3 official rate was 6.7%, and the U-6 rate was 11.7%.
All working-class Americans are in a difficult spot in this economy, along with senior citizens, who are seeing their retirement dollars not go far enough, as high rent and inflation take a toll. Black American voters, many of whom, rejected Vice President Harris’ bid to be president have nothing to be ashamed of. Black voters saved Joe Biden’s last disastrous presidential run for office. Biden was losing the Democratic Party’s primary in 2020 and black voters stepped up and changed that narrative, making him a winner. Now, Joe Biden has turned his back, not just on the Black American working class but all-American workers, professional, blue collar, union, and working-class Americans, everywhere.
While, American workers, indeed Americans have faced, tragedies, and challenges in the past, this one is different in that it is the Democratic party, the party in which working-class Americans have a vested interest that is underreporting our unemployment rates to the detriment of American workers, not Republicans. If the leadership of the Democratic party would just change course, the path to growing our economy is clear. A Consumer Tax Cut is the solution. See the details at thefixthistime.com. American workers, including Black American workers are concerned, when the Democratic party undercounts our unemployment rates, as millions of economic immigrants cross our borders, without a comprehensive plan to grow our economy.
Staff Writer; James Davis
Question? Comment? One may use this email address; MrDavis@ThyBlackMan.com.
