In more important news Obama goes on vacation yet again this time for 17 days in Hawaii.

I seriously doubt that the unemployment rate is 8.6%.  Since it's close to Christmas they're probably counting seasonal workers.  Also they don't take into account people who have stopped looking for work.  They give you a figure but they don't tell you how they reached it.  Don't believe something just because daddy government said that's the way it is.  Do some digging LAist.

Guy on left: "So she gets down on her knees and puts her hand like this around my what's-gone-sour, and you know what? 5 minutes later she had a job!"

Any of these brilliant financial minds consider that there is more to the economy than the percentage of employment?

While there is truth in this, the most essential portion of the economy for most people is whether or not they are able to participate in it. So while economists can focus on other aspects of the economy as much as they want, the general public will only care so much as it results in high employment.

I don't agree.  If 10% of the workforce is unemployed - that is not the general public, even if there was historic unemployment at 20% or more that is still no the general public.  The media and politicians focus on unemployment continually as a key economic indicator.  There is so much more that is not talked about or at least not given the attention it deserves.

But if 10% of the workforce is unemployed, then somewhere in the neighborhood of 30% to 40% of the workforce is worried about being unemployed. This makes them more conservative on the job so that they're less likely to take risks, and the entire environment becomes less experimental and less entrepreneurial. This also means people are less likely to buy stuff, especially expensive stuff, slowing the economy further. High unemployment makes the entire culture nervous and puts everybody in a bad mood. All this other stuff nobody in media talks about? They don't talk about it because most people don't care about it.

Consumerism is a losing game.

Which makes it unfortunate that we've pinned the functioning of our entire society on it.

Indeed.  It will end one way or another, let's hope it turns out in the best way possible.

don't matter Obama is still a secret muslim.

Worst, he's a secret Republican

Even worse, he wants to EAT YOUR CHILDREN.

The men in the picture are not just random people annoyed by OWS. They're the Tabacco Brothers. They're failed trash talk radio hosts, cheap wall street fraudsters, and crooked low level Staten Island politicos: 
http://politics.salon.com/2011...

  Oh, well, President Gingrich will solve that.

Apparently, President Newty will want to move the White House to 1425 K Street, NW.

"I didn't study a-broad in college, I studied lot of 'em - OH!" (didn't actually go to college)

Yea, I'm ashamed to say I'm an Andrew Dice Clay fan also.....

Don't be ashamed of it, own it

Oh I thought the guy on the right was Andrew Dice Clay.

Dude on right: I betcha he had his collar showing in that same exact way in his 6th grade picture back in the 70s in Bay Ridge....