That's invaluable information. Are the other people who are in business out there who want to share their insights? I get so tired of reading the same old mostly wrong economists and the journalists who parrot the party line.

Staples just announced it is closing 500 stores.
Note on Seasonal Adjustments: Seasonal adjustments to hiring, firing etc. are designed to account for luxation’s that appear in data on a cyclic basis. They are supposed to show the "real" creation/loss of jobs etc. BLS tends to use them to slow the reporting of the real numbers until people have absorbed the adjusted numbers, then let out the real numbers when no one is watching. They didn't do this before. They announced the real and adjusted numbers at the same time.

The BLS used to be the one place where you cold get reliable numbers and stats. Now the reporting portion seems to be very slow on the release of the foundational numbers and on any revisions to the initial numbers.
They appear to be playing politics with the release dates.
The analysts at BLS generate accurate numbers, basded on what is reported to them. It is the higher ups , IMHO, playing games with what is released and when.
But, to answer your question - I do believe that out government lies to us and it is getting worse by the day.

You're not trying to say that our government intentionally misleads us? Say it isn't so; I don't think I could stand the thought of it.

You get no argument from me.

Yup. What was it about 1.5 billion rounds the govt bought?

Just make sure you shoot back.

Once Goldman Sachs was short the decline was inevitable.

But he does have enough ammo to shoot us a few times each.

Statistics have been coming in on the weak side since New Years, but everyone knows the unemployment numbers are completely manipulated. As long as good numbers print, stock speculators know that the government is doing all it can to keep things afloat. The belief that the government can keep financial markets and the economy going is the religion of Wall Street. Everyone seems to forget that the government and Federal Reserve announced a bunch of programs from 2007-2009, and although the announcements produced huge rallies, they didn't stop the stock market from declining over 50 percent from its highs, and they didn't prevent the worst recession since the Great Depression.

I am a little surprised stock futures jumped so much on this news. As you said the numbers are manipulated and it wasn't a lot better than forecast. How much air can we pump into the stock market???

Between seasonal adjustment, the birth-death adjustment, and the labor force participation rate, the payroll numbers and the unemployment rate are the most manipulates statistics coming out of the government.