Films Remember Vets Who Die From Suicide

Recently, the Military Times wrote about The GI Film Festival that hosted two films in Fairfax, Virginia, on Memorial Day weekend. The two films honored those who have died from self-inflicted wounds or whose lives are at risk because of Post-Traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The films from last Saturday were inspired by the high suicide rate among veterans, with roughly 22 returning veterans taking their own lives each day, according to a February 2013 Veterans Affairs Department report.

The first movie, titled SAM, was an artistic film that looks at veteran suicide through the life of a young man returning from service in Afghanistan to find nothing has changed except himself, writes The Military Times.

The film is based on a short story by Juan Garcia and directed by Alexis Garcia Rocca, and seeks to raise awareness about the debilitating and sometimes deadly effects of PTSD.

“It was to put a face to the statistic, because a lot of people don’t have a military connection,” Garcia Rocca said. “I come from a military family, and that’s what brought me to the issue, and this was kind of made for everyone else — to be made aware that this exists.”

The second film was Project 22, which follows two wounded veterans – Scott Hansen and Doc King – on a 6,500-mile motorcycle ride to raise awareness about veteran suicide.

They reveal their own story of struggle and recovery as they meet with advocates, program directors and researchers along the way. Many veterans they speak to open up about their struggles and the painful reality of life with PTSD and even suicide attempts.

“I always feel like I gave a piece of my soul – that’s one way to put it. You come home different – mentally, physically, yeah – but I felt like I left part of my soul in Iraq,” says Ahmed Uddin, one of the veterans interviewed in the documentary.

“This country is absolutely not doing enough for these guys when they come back,” said audience member Beaux Watson, according to The Military Times.

(Updated article)

http://www.militarytimes.com/story/entertainment/2015/05/25/on-memorial-day-remembering-veterans-who-die-from-suicide/27908973/

China’s Central Bank Cuts Interest Rates: A Sign Of Slowing Economic Growth?

China’s central bank cut interest rates for the second time in less than four months, in a fresh sign that the country’s leadership is becoming more aggressive in trying to stop the slowdown of economic growth, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The rate cut by the People’s Bank of China was announced Saturday, and it came sooner than some analysts and investors had expected. It reflects growing worries over the world’s second-largest economy as it struggles with certain difficulties: a slumping property market, more money being sent offshore and growing risks of falling prices that, in effect, are pushing up borrowing costs for businesses.

The cut, effective Sunday, lowers by a quarter percentage point the benchmark one-year loan rate, to 5.35%, and the one-year deposit rate, to 2.5%. In a statement accompanying the announcement, the central bank singled out increasing deflationary pressure as a trigger for the move, saying that plunging commodity prices world-wide “provided room” to spur growth by lowering interest rates.

NYC Sets A Record, Most Media Sources Ignored It

New York City was on a roll: No murders for 12 days in a row. NYC hasn’t had 12 days of no homicides since at least the 90’s. Tim’s Take looks at the story.

New York City’s longest recorded homicide-free streak ended on Friday the 13th, when a 28-year-old man was shot multiple times just before midnight, according to CNN.

Eric Roman was transported to a nearby hospital in critical condition with gunshot wounds to his head, hand and leg and died Saturday, said the NYPD.

New York City had gone 12 days without a homicide, its longest stretch on modern record, police said Monday.

The last reported homicide was February 1, Super Bowl Sunday, in Upper Manhattan, police said.

Tim’s Take

November U-5 Unemployment Rate: 6.8%

The U-5 unemployment rate for November is 6.8%, and seasonally-adjusted, it would be 7.1%.

The “official” unemployment rate is the U3 unemployment rate, but it used to be the U5 unemployment rate. The Bureau of Labor Statistics revised the Current Population Survey in 1994, and among the changes made was the measure representing the official unemployment rate. It was changed from U3 to U5.

Here are some explanations of various unemployment classifications:

U-3 – Total unemployed, as a percent of the civilian labor force (official unemployment rate).

U-4 – Total unemployed plus discouraged workers, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus discouraged workers.

U-5 – Total unemployed, plus discouraged workers, plus all other persons marginally attached to the labor force, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force.

The official U3 unemployment rate does not include “discouraged workers.”

“Discouraged workers” are people of legal employment age who are not actively seeking employment or who do not find employment after long-term unemployment.

Wikipedia states: “…even if a person is still looking actively for a job, that person may have fallen out of the core statistics of unemployment rate after long-term unemployment. and is therefore by default classified as ‘discouraged.’”

Also, U3 unemployment does not include persons marginally attached to the labor force, or “marginally attached workers.”

The BLS defines “marginally attached workers” as “Persons not in the labor force who want and are available for work, and who have looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months (or since the end of their last job if they held one within the past 12 months), but were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. Discouraged workers are a subset of the marginally attached.”

It has also been claimed that other countries such as Germany include the “marginally attached worker” and “discouraged worker” in their official unemployment rate calculations.

Considering the fact that prior to 1994, the unemployment rate used to be the U5 rate and that other countries include the “marginally attached” and “discouraged worker” in their statistics, the U5 rate might be considered more appropriate than the “official” U3 rate.

MSNBC: Why Are Gas Prices So Low In The U.S.?

Global forces are driving down prices at the pump, and it’s expected to save U.S. consumers billions of dollars over the next year. Chris Hayes looks at the different reasons why gas prices are low.

MSNBC video.

U4 – U6 Unemployment Rates

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) uses the “U3” as its standard unemployment rate, which does not include “hidden unemployment” in the calculation.

Wikipedia states: In many countries only those who have no work but are actively looking for work (and/or qualifying for social security benefits) are counted as unemployed. Those who have given up looking for work (and sometimes those who are on Government “retraining” programs) are not officially counted among the unemployed, even though they are not employed.

The BLS revised the Current Population Survey in 1994, and among the changes made was the measure representing the official unemployment rate. It was renamed U3 instead of U5. In 2013, Representative Duncan Hunter proposed that the Bureau of Labor Statistics go back to the U5 rate instead of the current U3 rate.

In other words, in 1994, the U.S made the rather odd and “cheap” decision to “lower” the unemployment rate simply by changing the definition of unemployment and changing the statistical measurement.

In 1994, the unemployment rate did not go down – the government simply changed the definition of unemployment.

The below statistics are for August 2014 from the U.S. Department of Labor website:

U-3 Total unemployed, as a percent of the civilian labor force (official unemployment rate): 6.3%

U-4 Total unemployed plus discouraged workers, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus discouraged workers: 6.7%

U-5 Total unemployed, plus discouraged workers, plus all other persons marginally attached to the labor force, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force: 7.5%

U-6 Total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force: 12.0%

By a 1994 definition, unemployment today would be 7.5% instead of 6.3%. That’s because in 1994 the BLS changed the standard unemployment rate to U3 instead of U5. U3 is the unemployment rate given to the media. The U6 would be even higher.

In 2009, America’s U-6 unemployment rate was 17.4%.

A “discouraged worker” is a person of legal employment age who is not actively seeking employment or who does not find employment after long-term unemployment. Wikipedia states: “…even if a person is still looking actively for a job, that person may have fallen out of the core statistics of unemployment rate after long-term unemployment. and is therefore by default classified as “discouraged.”

“Marginally attached workers” (and “discouraged workers”) are, in fact, unemployed, but are not counted in the statistics.

Though there is very little on the internet about it, there is evidence that some economies (such as Germany) DO include hidden unemployment in their standard unemployment statistics, rendering comparisons between the U.S. and other nations useless.

So, a more accurate assessment of America’s true unemployment would be the U5 or U6 rate.