Business

Dear John: System works, not you

Dear John: The deception of the unemployment numbers masks the real number of people out of work, and it hurts the extension of unemployment benefits.

As much as I agree with you that the economy is the issue that concerns everyone, I have come to believe that unless the issue of campaign-finance reform is dealt with, every issue that concerns everyday Americans will be slanted in favor of the wealthy and big business.

Someone has to be benefiting from six years of this economic mess, and it surely isn’t the majority. T.G.

Dear T.G.: So you’ve discovered that it pays to be rich and powerful!

As for the long-term unemployment benefits: The government has to cut back somewhere.

Corporations pay bribes, too, in the form of campaign contributions.

And, just to be blunt, it’s easier to let unemployed people starve than it is to build one fewer battleship.

When I was growing up, we used to fret over the military-industrial complex. But the powerful Wall Street-Washington lobby is a far greater danger to the American way of life.

Worse, Wall Street and Washington pretend that the interests of the many are aligned with those of the few rich.

And we accept that explanation. Shame on us.

Dear John: February, a 28-day month, had 6,250 jobs created every day.

March, a 31-day month, had 6,190 jobs created every day.

Had February been a 31-day month, it would have had 193,750 jobs, more than March’s reported 192,000.

Then again, March had 21 workdays, and February had 20, but then who’s counting? M.B.

Dear M.B.: Apparently, you are.

I’ve never seen the employment numbers looked at in that way.

Bravo for finding yet another way for economic statistics to be interpreted.

Dear John: We are a group of eight seniors who have lost our weekly unemployment checks. Any idea when we can expect the suspension to be lifted?
We are all hurting badly. J.A.

Dear J.A.: The Senate last week passed legislation to restore unemployment benefits to the long-term jobless.

The bill now goes to the House, which is divided on the matter.

In the Senate, six Republicans joined with Democrats in passing the bill.

In the House, Republicans are trying to attach what they call a job-creating rider to the jobless-benefits bill.

In other words, nobody knows when you will get unemployment payments again. Sorry to deliver the bad news.

Dear John: The high-frequency trading cheats are using the same principle from the movie “The Sting”: using a brief lag in time due to technology transmission to jump in front of the line.

Basically, their trades, like the horse-race betting in the movie, are a sure thing. I, like a whole lot of other people, wish we could be a part of that action. Alas, I am not well connected. L.L.

Dear L.L.: Now you are getting into something that’s not allowed in this column — psychology and human nature.

I think you are saying that people are jealous that they, too, can’t be high-frequency traders, who spend very few minutes making lots of money and then can go about the business of living.

We all want to be freqs. And since we can’t be like them, we will attack them.

OK, that takes care of basic human instincts. But the fact of the matter is that financial markets that move violently in one direction or another are inherently unstable and will destabilize a nation’s economy.

So as logical as high-frequency trading is on one hand, traders should leave their freq’ing hands off our markets.