Joe Biden's funny job numbers

"President Barack Obama' s clean-energy initiatives will help create more than 700,000 jobs and allow the U.S. to double its renewable-power generation in three years, according to a report by Vice President Joe Biden," Bloomberg reports. Wow, that's a lot of jobs?

Or is it? Take a look at footnote 3 on page 2 of the Biden memo:

All of the job estimates used in this document correspond to jobs that last for one year. Of course, some jobs could last longer--in this case the number of distinct jobs would be reduced proportionately. For example, a project that employs one person for two years would count as creating two jobs.

We suppose if the guy doesn't get fired from either of his two jobs over the course of the two years, that would count as four jobs saved or created.

Here's Reuters headline: "Obama Administration Aims for High School Financial Literacy." We doubt they'll hit that target.

All administrations fudge statistics to spin a story the way they wish it to appear. But this seems excessive, no? This appears to be outright lying rather than the regular political slant one might put on jobs figures.

Going green will be a job killer, period. Hundreds of thousands of jobs in the fossil fuel energy field will be destroyed and will never come back. It will take a long time - if ever - before "green industries" grow to the point that they could replace the permanently lost jobs.

That's the bottom line.

Hat Tip: Ed Lasky