Unemployment manipulation impossible, says former Labor official

[IDemo]

Source: Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON -- Manipulating the government's monthly unemployment report is impossible because of the large number of people -- mostly civil servants and not political appointees -- involved in compiling the data, said the former commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"I think it would be impossible to really manipulate the numbers," said Keith Law, who served from 2008 to 2012 as commissioner of the independent statistical agency, which produces the report. "Certainly, it would be impossible to manipulate the numbers and not be found out."

After the BLS reported Friday that the unemployment rate in September dropped to 7.8% from 8.1%, former General Electric Chief Executive Jack Welch charged that the White House manipulated the number to distract from President Obama's debate performance this week.

"Unbelievable jobs numbers..these Chicago guys will do anything..can't debate so change number," Welch tweeted.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-welch-unemployment-manipulation-labor-statistics-20121005,0,7387690.story

[jtuck004]

1. Jack, wearing the tinfoil too much will make you go prematurely bald. And stupid. n/t

[Andy823]

2. Getting desperate

This kind of BS from the right just shows how desperate they really are, and how they will just make shit up in order to try and keep things looking so bad Romney might actually get into the WH, although I don't think anything they can do will ever make that happen, not when his own party still don't like him, and the christian right, the "REAL" christians, can't vote for him because of his religion.

[bulloney]

3. If you want to see manipulation, see how Cheney lied us into invading Iraq.

Talk about projection.

[ffr]

4. Imagine how low the % would be without Rethug filibusters!

If this doesn't spell it out clearly enough already.

No more Republicans. Clean the tables. Vote 100% Democratic ticket.

[link:?w=500|

[winstars]

5. Remember his Tweet about Clinton's speech at DNC, where he misspelled ARITHMETIC!!!

And he is a cheating on his wife, marrying the writer who wrote puff (fluffer?) articles on him motherfucker.

America's CEO is how Joey Scar, the intern killer referred to him this morning as I watched his head exploding.

[bananas]

6. There was one president who tried to manipulate BLS

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/wp/2012/10/05/there-was-one-president-who-tried-to-manipulate-bls/

There was one president who tried to manipulate BLS

Posted by Dan Eggen on October 5, 2012 at 12:47 pm

Former General Electric CEO Jack Welch is getting a lot of attention for an unfounded accusation that the Obama administration somehow cooked the positive jobs numbers issued Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

As it happens, there is a historical example of improper political pressure on the BLS by a U.S. president: Republican Richard M. Nixon.

As first recounted by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in their 1976 book “Final Days,” the frequently paranoid president — who had a history of anti-Semitic outbursts — became obsessed with the idea that a “Jewish cabal” at BLS was undermining him by issuing negative labor numbers. Nixon ordered his subordinates to tally up the number of Democrats and Jews in the agency.

“There’s a Jewish cabal, you know, running through this,” Nixon fumed in July 1971 to his chief of staff, H.R. “Bob” Haldeman, according to White House tapes. “…And they all — they all only talk to Jews. Now, but there it is. But there’s the BLS staff. Now how the hell do you ever expect us to get anything from that staff, the raw data, let alone what the poor guys have to say [inaudible] that isn’t gonna be loaded against us? You understand?”

<snip>

[joshcryer]

10. Wow, that's a fascinating op ed that is linked there. 125 years with that level of respect for #s.

[bananas]

7. On jobs numbers, BLS vows there's no conspiracy

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57526845/on-jobs-numbers-bls-vows-theres-no-conspiracy/

By Lucy Madison / CBS News/ October 5, 2012

On jobs numbers, BLS vows there's no conspiracy

<snip>

"BLS is not manipulating data. Evidence of such would be a scandal of enormous proportions & loss of credibility," Tony Fratto, former deputy press secretary to President George W. Bush, wrote on Twitter.

Steve Haugen, an economist at the BLS who has been involved in the process of analyzing jobs data for nearly 30 years, flatly dismissed the idea that there was any way the White House or Obama campaign could have had a hand in how the numbers turned out.

"The data are not manipulated for political reasons. I've been involved in the process myself for almost three decades. There's never been any political manipulation of the data, period," Haugen told CBSNews.com.

According to Haugen, the BLS has been getting its data for the household survey -- the one on which the unemployment figure is based -- from the Census Bureau since 1942. The BLS took over the responsibility for analyzing the employment and unemployment data in 1959. And Haugen says that survey used in the data collection process has been largely the same since 1994. The BLS says the White House is not involved in the process of gathering or analyzing data, and does not give directives on the collection, production, dissemination of data.

<snip>

[Tx4obama]

8. Kick! n/t

[GeorgeGist]

9. Is sociopathy ...

a job skill for the successful CEO?

[4lbs]

11. The only manipulation happened during Bushie's terms.

They redefined how they counted unemployment.

They only counted you unemployed until you were unemployed for 4 months. That was it. After that, you were no longer unemployed according to Bushie.

Obama came in and said that was wrong, and told BLS to count everyone who has been unemployed for up to 12 months.

A small difference.

[Kingofalldems]

12. K and R for all the Cave visitors

Hey there!