Tootfinder

While trying to understand why the American middle class feels poorer each year despite healthy GDP growth and low unemployment,
I came across a sentence buried in a research paper:
“The U.S. poverty line is calculated as three times the cost of a minimum food diet in 1963, adjusted for inflation.”
I read it again.
Three times the minimum food budget.
I felt sick.

Part 1: My Life Is a Lie
How a Broken Benchmark Quietly Broke America

In ant colonies infected by a tapeworm parasite, uninfected workers show signs of stress-related gene activity, in part because they're caring for infected nestmates (Photo by Matt Hamer, via AntWiki)
Parasite prevalence in a social host has colony-wide impacts on transcriptional activity and survival
https://doi.org/10.1093/ev…

Seems #Marriott is having web trouble. Westin.com and Bonvoy.com are both SSL-unenabled. Expired certs? And marriott.com does load, but you can't sign in, you get a message that sign-in is not available. I've made no effort to actually diagnose the problem.

Sneaking unemployment rate means the U.S. economy is inching closer to triggering Sahm Rule | Fortune
https://fortune.com/2025/12/19/sneaking-unemployment-rate-sahm-rule-recession-indicator-trigger/

videochat intake session with Oregon unemployment counselor, she mentioned half the people she's been seeing lately are software engineers.
also, her supervisor told her to work from home because the office is crazy with people seeking help. her office is Hermiston, far from the metro area. she mentioned she doesn't have great internet there.
good times

The Atlanta Fed estimates delays faced by claimants in COBOL-based unemployment insurance systems cut US GDP by at least $40B between March 13 and year-end 2020 (Bryce Elder/Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/7610a755-27e3-4792-a337-27d9b301000b

Americans with four-year college degrees now comprise a record 25% of total unemployment,
underscoring a sharp slowdown in white-collar hiring this year.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2025/11/22/us-degree-holders-unemployment-rate/

Americans with four-year college degrees now comprise a record 25% of total unemployment,
underscoring a sharp slowdown in white-collar hiring this year.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2025/11/22/us-degree-holders-unemployment-rate/

Federal data belatedly released Tuesday shows that the
US unemployment rate
rose to the highest level in four years last month
as Donald Trump’s administration continues its assault on the government’s workforce
and American corporations lay off workers at a level not seen in decades.
The unemployment rate rose to 4.6% in November,
up from 4.4% in September,
according to the Labor Department report, whose release was delayed due to the recent governme…

Trump Economy 'Stalling Out' as Unemployment Rate Hits Highest Level in 4 Years | Common Dreams
"Trump may give himself an A++++ on the economy, but these latest jobs numbers are failing working families."

Labor market lost 41,000 jobs over October, November;
Unemployment rate is up
The October loss of more than 100,000 jobs was particularly striking,
-- the sharpest losses since the covid pandemic-era recession.
But economists expected losses in October
-- because the data reflected tens of thousands of federal workers who deferred resignation and officially parted ways with the federal government in October.
Federal government payrolls fell by 162,000 j…

Unemployment rate rises, signaling weakness in the economy
The labor market cool down continued this fall, according to new jobs numbers released on a delayed scheduled by the Labor Department.