AND IN THE REAL WORLD - AT 9:25 A.M. ET:  There's so much economic hype coming out of the White House, it's hard to know what's really happening...unless you go to good sources.  What's happening is grim:

The real US unemployment rate is 16 percent if persons who have dropped out of the labor pool and those working less than they would like are counted, a Federal Reserve official said Wednesday.

"If one considers the people who would like a job but have stopped looking -- so-called discouraged workers -- and those who are working fewer hours than they want, the unemployment rate would move from the official 9.4 percent to 16 percent, said Atlanta Fed chief Dennis Lockhart.

The underemployed, and those who have given up, are the real story here.  We can easily have a jobless recovery, with a lot of hurt for those this administration claims to care about. 

Meanwhile, the bonuses on Wall Street are flowing again, into the millions, and even into the tens of millions.  We've said before that these people will never learn, and that they'll go back to doing exactly what they did before, leaving the public and their shareholders to pick up the tab.  But they write big checks to political campaigns, which is why they often get away with it.  They give free enterprise a bad name.

And here's some further sobering economic news:

NEW YORK (AP) -- The government agency that guarantees you won't lose your money in a bank failure may need a lifeline of its own.

The coffers of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. have been so depleted by the epidemic of collapsing financial institutions that analysts warn it could sink into the red by the end of this year.

Hey, welcome to the recovery.  Plan your trip to Martha's Vineyard now.

August 27, 2009