Washington Blames Minor Storm For High Unemployment

Well, today has been an eventful day in the centrally-planned American economy. Helicopter Ben announced QE3, which will take the form of an indefinite monthly purchase of $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities. Ironically, the Fed's announcement of another round of economically-deleterious liquidity pumping isn't the most interesting econ news of the day. The most interesting news is the BLS's excuse for the rising unemployment found on the latest jobs report: one minor tropical storm. That's right: according to the BLS, Tropical Storm Isaac, with its furious 60 MPH winds (oh my gosh!), was to blame for the increase in initial unemployment claims.

Your humble blogger lived in Charleston during Hurricane Hugo (135 MPH sustained winds with gusts topping 160). 60 MPH hardly qualifies as a storm, much less the cause of increased unemployment on a national scale. Yet the federal government, desperate for any excuse it can make for a labor market that simply won't recover from the recession that "ended" more than 3 years ago, made this asinine claim in its weekly jobs report today:

Several states have reported increases in initial claims for the week ending September 8, 2012 , as a result of Tropical Storm Issac.

Several states? Why, because it rained for a few days?

The sheer idiocy of the BLS's statement didn't stop the economically-ignorant liberal media from running with the excuse, however. Some of the headlines of the day:

Hurricane Isaac Sends US Jobless Claims up to 382K (ABC)

Hurricane Isaac sends jobless claims up (CBS News) 

(Hey, ABC and CBS: Only 1 state briefly saw category 1 hurricane-strength winds.)

Tropical Storm Isaac boosts jobless claims (CNBC)