Healthcare First in Spending, Last in Relative Performance (Table)

I am wondering if many people understand that we spend twice as much on healthcare as most industrialized countries. At the same time, our world ranking in healthcare delivery is poor.

It might be interesting to note that the profits of healthcare insurance companies rose by more than 400 percent in the period 2000-2007.

During the same period, the number of people without healthcare insurance, and the cost of healthcare insurance was rising fast.

It also surprises me when I see people arguing on television that they prefer the status quo.



All information is taking from 2005 OECD data unless otherwise noted.
*2000, 2003-2005 World Health Organization Data. **2004 OECD data.
Source: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, World Health Organization
Analysis by PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Heath Research Institute

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People Unemployed 27 Weeks or Longer Rises Sharply (Chart)

News on unemployment was pretty good this morning, right?

The number of people unemployed 27 weeks or longer rose to 4,965,000 versus 4,381,000 a month ago.

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Real Unemployment 16.8 Percent

Among the marginally attached, there were 796,000 discouraged workers in July, up by 335,000 over the past 12 months. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.)

Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them.

Not many people are aware of the U-6 report that is issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Most news organizations report the more popular Bureau of Labor Statistics--Civilian Unemployment Rate. If you read this report today then you learned that unemployment was 9.4 percent.

Real Unemployment U-6 -- 16.8%

There is another category of unemployed that are not counted in that report. They are described in the U-6 report this way,

Marginally attached workers are persons who currently are neither working nor looking for work but indicate that they want and are available for a job and have looked for work sometime in the recent past. Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached,have given a job-market related reason for not looking currently for a job.

The U-6 report counts everyone that is unemployed. To view the report go here.

U-6

• Total unemployed
• plus all marginally attached workers
• plus total employed part time for economic reasons
• as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers

The number reported today for this series is 16.8% .

Not a very pretty picture if you fall in these categories.

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Number of Discourage Workers Jumps to 796,000

Among the marginally attached, there were 796,000 discouraged workers
in July, up by 335,000 over the past 12 months.

Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them.

Source BLS

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Unemployed Now 14.5 Million, Rate 9.4 Percent

Nonfarm payroll employment continued to decline in July (-247,000), and the unemployment rate was little changed at 9.4 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The average monthly job loss for May through July
(-331,000) was about half the average decline for November through April (-645,000). In July, job losses continued in many of the major industry sectors.

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Household Survey Data

In July, the number of unemployed persons was 14.5 million. The
unemployment rate was 9.4 percent, little changed for the second
consecutive month. (See table A-1.)

Among the major worker groups,

• unemployment rates for adult men (9.8percent),
• adult women (7.5 percent),
• teenagers (23.8 percent),
• whites(8.6 percent),
• blacks (14.5 percent),
• Hispanics (12.3 percent)
• and Asians was 8.3

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more)
rose by 584,000 over the month to 5.0 million. In July, 1 in 3 unemploy-
ed persons were jobless for 27 weeks or more. (See table A-9.)

The civilian labor force participation rate declined by 0.2 percentage
point in July to 65.5 percent. The employment-population ratio, at 59.4
percent, was little changed over the month but has declined by 3.3 per-
centage points since the recession began in December 2007. (See
table A-1.)

The number of persons working part time for economic reasons (sometimes
referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was little changed in July
at 8.8 million. The number of such workers rose sharply in the fall and
winter but has been little changed for 4 consecutive months.
(See table A-5.)

About 2.3 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force
in July, 709,000 more than a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally
adjusted.) These individuals, who were not in the labor force, wanted
and were available for work and had looked for a job sometime in the
prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had
not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. (See
table A-13.)

Among the marginally attached, there were 796,000 discouraged workers
in July, up by 335,000 over the past 12 months. (The data are not
seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently
looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them.
The other 1.5 million persons marginally attached to the labor force
in July had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey
for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.

Source BLS

Bob DeMarco is a citizen journalist and twenty year Wall Street veteran. Bob has written more than 700 articles with more than 18,000 links to his work on the Internet. Content from All American Investor has been syndicated on Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, Pluck, Blog Critics, and a growing list of newspaper websites. Bob is actively seeking syndication and writing assignments.

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Manufacturing ISM Report On Business (NAPM, Graph)

Economic activity in the manufacturing sector failed to grow in July for the 18th consecutive month, while the overall economy grew for the third consecutive month, say the nation's supply executives in the latest Manufacturing ISM Report On Business®.



The current index is 48.9 versus 44.8 in June. An increase of 4.1 percent.

A PMI reading above 50 percent indicates that the manufacturing economy is generally expanding; below 50 percent that it is generally declining. Institute for Supply Management.

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Real National Defense Gross Investment (Chart)

Real National Defense Gross Investment, Quarterly, Billions of Chained 2000 Dollars, Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate.

FYI.

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Reserve Bank Credit Dropping are Higher Interest Rates Ahead (Graph)

Reserve Bank Credit is peaking. Reserve credit is down from the peak of $2,236 billions during December, 2008, the secondary top at $2,165 billions during May, 2009. The current reading is $2,010 billions.

This series should be watched closely. The current drop in the dollar could force the Federal Reserve to continue draining reserves from the system to protect the dollar from an all out free fall.

This will likely lead to an increase in long term interest rates. However, it is time to start watching the two year treasury security closely.



Note: Reserve Bank credit is the sum of securities held outright, repurchase agreements, term auction credit, other loans, net portfolio holdings of Commercial Paper Funding Facility LLC, net portfolio holdings of LLCs funded through the Money Market Investor Funding Facility, net portfolio holdings of Maiden Lane LLC, net portfolio holdings of Maiden Lane II LLC, net portfolio holdings of Maiden Lane III LLC, float, central bank liquidity swaps, and other Federal Reserve assets.

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Gross Domestic Product Percent Change (Graph)

Gross Domestic Product, 1 Decimal, Quarterly, Billions of Dollars, Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate.

Bar Chart, Percent Change

$14,149.8 Billions versus $14,497.8 a year ago.

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Bob DeMarco is a citizen journalist and twenty year Wall Street veteran. Bob has written more than 700 articles with more than 18,000 links to his work on the Internet. Content from All American Investor has been syndicated on Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, Pluck, Blog Critics, and a growing list of newspaper websites. Bob is actively seeking syndication and writing assignments.

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