Will the economy produce a lot more jobs in 2012, or are we stalled looking at permanent unemployment and a new underclass?  It’s an important question because the answer to it predicts the course of the election season far more than anything else.  It’s the economy, stupid – really it’s the jobs.  Nothing else is likely to matter as President Obama makes the case for his own re-election – and likely runs against Congressional paralysis in the process.

If we want to predict tomorrow’s news today, there is nothing more important than what might happen with employment.  While we can never be sure exactly what will happen, we can put boundaries on the possibilities.

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You have seen it used many times, but it often passes by without notice.  It’s entirely possible that you had an English teacher who said it should never be done. You may have never contemplated using the second person perspective, the most direct and directed form.  But you have seen it used all over the internet as one of the most immediate and direct ways of speaking to someone.

You can use it as an accusation or from inside someone’s head.  Through its many uses and distinct flavors, you will find that nothing suits the internet quite like second person.

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How are things going?  Without useful data, it’s nearly impossible to make good decisions and adjust accordingly.  The most surprising thing about the decade-long downturn in the US economy is that the bottom line data, real (inflation adjusted) Gross Domestic Product, has been a moving target.  Data has been constantly revised downward for as far back as 2003 through last month.

With the first revision to the second quarter 2011 GDP figure due on Friday, we can only expect the very worst.  But that’s not all there is to this problem. A look back at how far it has all been revised down shows just how bad things have been for the last decade – and how policy makers never saw it happening.

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