Don't Quit Your Day Job…

A .4 percentage point drop from 9.0% in October to 8.6% in November? I’ll take it! Maybe there really are green shoots sprouting in the economy? (Look, Bernanke gets a pass if Greenspan gets a pass for being premature on his famous “Irrational Exuberance” call)

There are arguments on both sides of the political aisle about how good the unemployment report actually is… Is the lowered rate really just a function of discouraged workers dropping out of the workforce? Could the news actually be masking even more encouraging signs? I’m not going to let you comment before you stare at the charts I produced for you on various measures of employment.

One more Weekender!

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Been reading DQYDJ for a while? Good. You know that looking at data from a different angle yields very interesting insights.

Here’s one interesting thing: the federal income tax code benefits 18 to 35 year olds at the expense of 45 to 65 year olds. How do I figure? The IRS helpfully posted data for 2009 (links are xls files) on both the amount of income made by age group and the amount of Federal income taxes paid after credits. So, should the Silent Generation and Baby Boom Generation be mad at Generations X and Y? Partially! Read on.