Latino Poverty Rate Climbs to 28%;
Millions of Racists Take a Second Look At Obama

He's like a Tasmanian Devil of economic misery.

This, by the way, is due to a "revised" algorithm, which, it turns out, was only ready for publication after the election.

Latinos poverty rates climbed to 28 percent after the census reconfigured its algorithm to take into account medical costs and government programs. The Hispanic poverty level rose after the government took into account safety-net programs such as food stamps and housing, which have lower participation among immigrants and non-English speakers.

Overall, the ranks of America's poor edged up last year to a high of 49.7 million, based on the new census measure.

Just stressing, again, that these new numbers are only available post-election.

The numbers released Wednesday by the Census Bureau are part of a newly developed supplemental poverty measure.

...

Based on the revised formula, the number of poor people exceeded the 49 million, or 16 percent of the population, who were living below the poverty line in 2010. That came as more people in the slowly improving economy picked up low-wage jobs last year but still struggled to pay living expenses. The revised poverty rate of 16.1 percent also is higher than the record 46.2 million, or 15 percent, that the government's official estimate reported in September.

Romney quoted that 46 million figure a lot, if I remember right. And he was wrong. It was worse. As we're just finding out.

In other news, first-time jobless claims surged -- really surged -- last week.

Get ready for the "it's all Sandy's fault" barrage, because the post-reelection status quo sure will desperately need it today. The latest initial claims data posted a multi-year high 104,548 surge in weekly NSA claims from 361,800 to 466,348, and even the Seasonally adjusted number soaring from 361K to 439K on expectations of a 375K print. In other words, a complete disaster for any economic data bulls. What is truly amusing is that the same Wall Street "experts" who set expectations were unable to foresee the Sandy effect that every "macrotourist" on Twitter apparently is so very aware of. Also, it is apparently also "Sandy's fault" (now that the Bush excuse is back in retirement) that the prior week's claims were revised from 355K to 361K. Basically, just as we said 3 weeks ago, ignore every negative data point: it is Sandy's fault.

See, for example, CNBC pushing the "It's all Sandy's fault" line...

Super storm Sandy drove U.S. weekly jobless claims up to 439,000, while consumer prices rose slightly last month as higher rents and costlier food offset cheaper gas.

...though I don't know if Sandy went back in time four months to slow New York manufacturing:

Separately, a reading on manufacturing in New York State showed that factory activity slowed in November for a fourth straight month.

It is terribly frustrating and dispiriting. I don't know what could possibly wake the public up to the possibility that Maybe Obama's policies are hurting the economy. If God Himself came down with a Holy Whiteboard and explained the connection between burdening job-creators and rising joblessness, I think the American public would still vote for Free Condoms.

In addition, Chris Matthews would claim that God's Holy Whiteboard was a "dog whistle" for the "ethnic talk types."

posted by Ace at 11:56 AM

| Access Comments