Economics and finance links

Get It Straight: Consumer Spending is *not* 70% of GDP

Where are the Jobs? For Many Companies, Overseas. Debate here.

Gary Schilling: And Now House Prices Will Now Drop Another 20%. Debate here.

Work Longer: A Silver Bullet for the Silver Tsunami

U.S. changes how it measures long-term unemployment

So many Americans have been jobless for so long that the government is changing how it records long-term unemployment.

Citing what it calls "an unprecedented rise" in long-term unemployment, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), beginning Saturday, will raise from two years to five years the upper limit on how long someone can be listed as having been jobless.

The move could help economists better measure the severity of the nation's prolonged economic downturn.

The change is a sign that bureau officials "are afraid that a cap of two years may be 'understating the true average duration' — but they won't know by how much until they raise the upper limit," says Linda Barrington, an economist who directs the Institute for Compensation Studies at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations.