Sunday, August 09, 2026
Saturday, August 08, 2026
The Unemployment Rate Fell To 4.1% In July Even Though The Economy Lost Jobs
The Labor Department released its monthly unemployment report on Friday. It showed the unemployment rate fell by 0.1% in July to 4.1%. But that is not a cause for celebration. The economy actually lost 23,000 jobs during the month. The only reason the unemployment rate fell was because the civilian work force also shrunk - by about 264,000.
Here are the relevant statistics for the month of July:
SIZE OF THE CIVILIAN WORK FORCE:
169,094,000
OFFICIAL NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:
6,916,000
OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:
4.1%
DEMOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN OF OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT:
Adult men...............3.9%
Adult women...............3.7%
Teens (16-19)...............12.1%
Whites...............3.6%
Blacks...............6.3%
Asians...............4.0%
Hispanics...............4.6%
No HS diploma...............5.4%
HS graduate...............4.0%
Some college...............3.6%
Bachelor's deg. or more............... 2.7%
NUMBER OF MARGINALLY-ATTACHED WORKERS (not employed but no longer counted):
1,806,000
MORE REALISTIC NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED (marginally-attached + official):
8,722,000
MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:
5.16%
The U.S. Is Experiencing Its Third Oligarchy - And Its Destroying Our Democracy
The following is just part of an excellent post by Robert Reich:
America has experienced oligarchy three times in its brief history.
The first was at the nation’s start. Many of the men who founded the United States were slaveholding white oligarchs. America didn’t have much of a middle class. Most white people were farmers, indentured servants, farmhands, traders, day laborers, and artisans. A fifth of the population was Black, almost all enslaved.
A century later, a second oligarchy emerged, the robber barons. They were men who amassed fortunes through their railroad, steel, oil, and financial empires — men such as J. Pierpont Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Andrew Mellon. They ushered the nation into an industrial revolution that vastly expanded economic output.
They also corrupted government, brutally suppressed wages, generated unprecedented levels of inequality and urban poverty, pillaged rivals, shut down competitors, and made out like bandits — which is why they earned the sobriquet “robber barons.”
World War I and the Great Depression of the 1930s eroded most of these robber barons’ wealth. And most of their power was eliminated after the elections of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 and Democratic majorities in the House and Senate.
For the next half-century the gains from growth were more widely shared, and democracy became more responsive to the needs and aspirations of average Americans.
Although America created the largest middle class the world had ever seen, there was still much to do — civil rights and voting rights for Black Americans, wider economic opportunities for them and for women and Latinos, protection of the environment. Yet by almost every measure the nation was making progress.
A third American oligarchy emerged starting around 1980. Since then, the share of the nation’s wealth owned by the richest 400 Americans has quadrupled (from 0.8 percent to 3.7 percent).
The richest 130,000 Americans and their immediate families now own as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent — 117 million — combined. The three richest Americans own as much as the entire bottom half of the population.
The only other country with similarly high levels of wealth concentration is Russia.
All this has been accompanied by a dramatic increase in the political power of the super-wealthy and an equally dramatic decline in the political influence of everyone else.
Unlike income or wealth, power is a zero-sum game. The more of it at the top, the less of it anywhere else.
The average American now has little or no effect on public policy. Giant corporations, their CEOs, and a handful of extremely rich people have more influence than any comparable group since the robber barons. . . .
As long as the oligarchy is in control, there will be no antitrust enforcement to puncture the power of their giant corporations. Instead, their corporations will continue to grow larger, raise prices for consumers, and become more politically powerful.
As long as the oligarchy is in control, there will be no meaningful constraint on Wall Street’s dangerous gambling addiction. The gambling will grow.
As long as the oligarchy is in control, there will be no limits to CEO pay, and Wall Street hedge fund and private equity managers will rake in billions more.
As long as the oligarchy is in control, government will dole out even more subsidies, bailouts, and loan guarantees to big corporations, and it will continue to eliminate protections for consumers, workers, and the environment.
The propagandists and demagogues behind the oligarchy (Donald Trump included) are pouring salt into some of the nation’s oldest wounds. They’re stoking racial resentments, describing human beings as illegal aliens, fueling hatred of immigrants, and spreading fears of communists and socialists.
This strategy gives the oligarchy freer rein: It distracts Americans from how the oligarchy is looting the nation, buying off politicians, and silencing critics.
The only way to disempower the oligarchy is for the rest of us to join together and take power back.
This will require a multiracial, multiethnic coalition of working-class, poor and middle-class Americans fighting for democracy and fighting against concentrated wealth, power, and privilege.
We must get big money out of politics. End corporate welfare and crony capitalism. Bust up monopolies. Stop voter suppression. And strengthen the countervailing powers of labor unions, employee-owned corporations, worker cooperatives, state and local banks, and grass-roots politics.
This agenda is neither “right” nor “left.” It is the bedrock for everything else America must do.
Friday, August 07, 2026
Most Say The Government Should Act To Reduce The Wealth Gap Between Rich And Poor
The chart above reflects the results of the Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between July 31st and August 3rd of a nationwide sample of 1,609 adults (including 1,473 registered voters). The margin of error is 3.6 points for adults and 3.3 points for registered voters.
Another Poll Shows Affordability Is The Primary Issue In This Election
The charts above are from the Marquette University Law School Poll -- done between July 22nd and 29th of a nationwide sample of 1,076 adults, with a 3.2 point margin of error.
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