GULFPORT, Miss. – Reacting to the latest jobs report, Newt Gingrich suggested Friday that the Labor Department fudged its calculation of February unemployment. 

“If we had the same level of participation in the labor force we had the day Obama was sworn in, it would be 10.8 percent,” Gingrich said, disputing the calculation released Friday that unemployment hovered at 8.3 percent for a second straight month.

The candidate was basing his statement on analysis by James Pethokoukis of the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, who said that if the size of the labor force as a share of the total population was the same as it was when President Obama took office, then the unemployment number would be 10.8 percent. 

Gingrich slammed President Obama’s handling of the economy, saying “his achievement has not been creating jobs, his achievement has been driving people out of the workforce. That's not progress, that's going backwards and it makes him the best food stamp president in American history.”

It was a particularly feisty speech for Gingrich, who showed up over an hour late for his appearance at Gulfport High School. He apologized to the audience of over 200 people for his tardiness, explaining he was late because he made an impromptu decision to record a video after learning there was a drilling rig along the way to Gulfport. (read more)

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Economy

newt gingrich

2012

Mitt Romney

Barack Obama

Greece

When the clock struck midnight (and earlier than that in some places), millions of people began flocking to big retail stores across the nation in hopes of snatching up good deals on holiday gifts and gadgets. But for Occupy Wall Street protestors, there's a different reason to be at the local big-box store.

Occupy Wall Street protesters are attempting to take on the biggest retail day of the season -- Black Friday -- by occupying Walmarts and other top retailers across the country from New York to Honolulu.

"Target, Best Buy, and Macys all intend to open at midnight on Black Friday, depriving thousands of workers from a thanksgiving dinner with their families to improve corporate profits," the Occupy Black Friday Facebook page states, "Workers are fighting back and OWS stands in solidarity."

Early reports indicate Occupy Black Friday protestors have not pulled off any major disruptions, however. (read more)

Despite a poor economy, Americans are finding ways to make it home for the holidays.

AAA is forecasting about 42.5 million people will travel more than 50 miles for Thanksgiving, a four percent increase from last year. This is the first increase in holiday travel this year.

"Driving AAA's projected increase in the number of Thanksgiving travelers is pent-up demand from Americans who may have foregone holiday travel the last three years," said Bill Sutherland, the vice president of AAA Travel Services. "As consumers weigh the fear of economic uncertainty and the desire to create lasting family memories this holiday, more Americans are expected to choose family and friends over frugality."

According to AAA consumer confidence and consumer comfort surveys, sixty percent of intending travelers feel the economy has either no impact on their travel plans or that things have improved for them. The remaining 40 percent do state an intention to scale back travel plans but in light of the current economic conditions.

Automobiles remain the dominant mode of transportation, but 3.4 million people are expected to fly during the Thanksgiving holiday despite the 20 percent average increase in airfares from last year. Hotel rates have also increased with travelers spending an average of $145 per night compared to $136 last year. One bright spot... a decrease in daily car rentals.

The Thanksgiving travel period is from Nov. 23 through Nov. 27. (read more)

VINEYARD HAVEN, Massachusetts -- Not even an earthquake that was felt here at this vacation retreat could prevent another afternoon on the golf course for President Obama, who is also trying to take a swing at burdensome government red tape that may be choking off economic growth.

Cass Sunstein, administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, revealed Tuesday the administration is hoping to help businesses in America save billions of dollars by wiping out or scaling back hundreds of government regulations.

"Over the next five years, the monetized savings from just a fraction of the reforms announced today are likely to exceed $10 billion," Sunstein wrote on the White House's blog. "Perhaps more important, today's plans explicitly recognize that the regulatory lookback is not a one-time endeavor. Agencies will continue to revisit existing rules, asking whether they should be updated, streamlined, or repealed.

Officials at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce quickly called the "lookback" on old regulations a step in the right direction but said it did not go nearly enough given the mountain of new regulations the President created with health care and financial reform. (read more)

What do furniture trade shows and the debt bill have in common? Not much, really. But if a certain former United States President is the keynote speaker at the event, the hot button topic will undoubtedly receive some attention.

"The Democrats are proud and the Republicans are relieved for the next election that they did this," said former President Bill Clinton during a question and answer session following his keynote address at the annual Las Vegas World Market furniture trade show on August 2. "They didn't do anything to Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security. Well that's a good thing if you want to stabilize the incomes of retired people. But what does that mean?"

And from there, the former U.S. President went on to say what he felt potential spending cuts could do to the country.

"They're gonna halfway gut all the domestic spending, which is the quality of life and the future of the country. How much do you really want them to cut air traffic control? Or safe food or clean air? Or research and development that will generate the jobs of the 21st century?"

President Clinton expressed his concern about the growing debt and claimed that before 1981, the country "never, ever, ever ran a substantial, deliberate annual deficit." (read more)

Imagine if all the U.S. jobs lost during the recession were already back.

That would be great, right?

What if America's deficit stood at just about $50 billion?

That would be wonderful, too, right?

Well, there is a North American country where that's true. It's Canada.

Still Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper faces a tough test in Monday's election.

"The choice is to continue on the economic track we're on with low taxes that are providing jobs and enabling us to deliver real, affordable benefits to Canada," Harper told supporters gathered in Niagara Falls Thursday, always happy to highlight such a rosy economic story.

As Canadians head to the polls for their national elections, you'd be excused if you predicted in light of all the good news that Harper's Conservative Party will be rewarded with a solid majority in Parliament.

But that's not the case. The election is a toss-up. (read more)

New unemployment numbers being lauded by the Obama administration aren't impressing everyone and one skeptic is sounding an alarm from the heart of organized labor.

"Nearly two years after one of the worst recessions in our history -- certainly the worst one in our lifetimes -- our economy is showing signs of real strength," the president said Friday. "Today we learned that we added 230,000 private sector jobs last month. That's good news."

But Mark Brenner, a labor economist and the director of labornotes.org, a website dedicated to voicing the concerns of organized labor, says Friday's numbers aren't something the administration should be "shouting from the rooftops." More than the number of jobs created, Brenner argues, the White House should be more focused on the quality of new jobs.

"If you dig into the numbers, I think there should be a lot more hand-wringing than backslapping," Brenner said. "If you think you can build a recovery around more Home Depot cashiers and Wal-Mart greeters you need to have your head examined." (read more)

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan says the Obama Administration's "activism" in handling economic affairs is hampering what could otherwise be a robust recovery from the recent recession.

Greenspan, speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations Tuesday, argues that companies sitting on stockpiles of cash are unwilling to make long-term capital investments because of increased government regulation and hundreds of billions of dollars in stimulus spending that have "crowded out" private investment opportunities. It's a situation he says closely models the trends during the Great Depression.

"There's very much [a] similar fear of what government will do," he said.

This hesitancy from corporate America, Greenspan claims, has kept unemployment rates at increased levels not seen in several decades and led to a "disappointingly tepid" economic recovery.

Greenspan's comments replicated the observations he made in a recent commentary for the journal "International Finance." He asserts that over past two years, lawmakers in Washington have been too keen-or active--in trying to legislate the economy.

"I conclude that the current government activism is hampering what should be a broad-based robust economic recovery, driven in significant part by the positive wealth effect of a buoyant U.S. and global stock market," Greenspan wrote. (read more)

Today, the U.S. Senate begins debate on sweeping patent reform legislation that, supporters say, will speed innovation and help alleviate the nation's high unemployment.

In its current form, the Patent Reform Act of 2011 (S. 23) would give the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office more leeway in setting application fees and reinvesting surplus funds in new technology and personnel. The agency currently faces a backlog of 700 thousand applications -- each taking as long as three years to approve.

"With technology advancing as rapidly as it does today, your invention may not even be relevant by the time the patent actually issues," said Louis Foreman, founder and CEO of Enventys, a product design firm based in Charlotte, NC.

Inventors currently pay around $1000 to apply for a patent ($500 for individuals and small companies). USPTO officials say they want to reduce the already discounted fee for small entities to $250 to encourage more innovation.

Although the Patent Office has been completely fee-funded since 1990, Congress has diverted more than $800 million dollars in fee revenue from the USPTO to other federal programs.

"If we get patent reform legislation done and the USPTO is set free, deficit neutral, to go attack that backlog and put patents out so that Americans can create jobs, I believe that you are going to see at least hundreds of thousands and, over a period of years, literally millions of jobs created," said USPTO Director David Kappos.

Speed is not the only concern among inventors and entrepreneurs seeking patents. (read more)