That’s the big story in the media.  The unemployment rate is skyrocketing!  People are losing their jobs!  We’re headed to a recession...according to experts and their predictions.

What they’re saying is that we’re heading back to jobless claim levels we saw in 2005...when the average unemployment rate was around 5% all year.  A level most economists consider “full employment,” and one that is several points lower than the European Union.

But what does the media, and the opportunistic politicians who feed off their pessimistic reporting, care about “fact” and “reality?” It is perception that is more important than reality, and if these people can convince Americans that the economy is bad then the economy will be bad.