With the US unemployment rate having become a irrelevant anachronism from a bygone era, indicative merely of the record millions of Americans - increasingly those in their prime working years [7]- who drop out of the labor force every year rather than the slack, or lack thereof, in it, even the Federal Reserve has been forced to admit the favorite BLS metric for generations of economists is now redundant. Instead, it has chosen to focus on a different one: that of wages, which indeed, have gone nowhere fast, and in fact just posted their biggest monthly drop since before the Lehman crash!
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However, it appears that the chart above tells only half the story. For the other half we go to a chart in Odey Asset Management's year-end letter [9] breaking down the difference between unionized and non-unionized labor, and which shows something stunning.
This:
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Here is Crispin Odey's commentary on the record divergence between wages growth for unionized and non-unionized wages:
"What is interesting is how differently private sector wages are growing in America for unionised labour forces and non-unionised. This suggests that there is huge value in being in a union at the moment, and that non-union private sector workers in the US do not appreciate the negotiating leverage they have with companies. With unemployment falling almost every month at the moment, and currently sitting at 5.6%, there is a risk of a sharp catch-up in this ‘underpaid’ dynamic."
We disagree with the latter, but agree with the former. Because for all the bluster and talk about an imminent wage hike "just around the corner" - talk which has been taking place for the past 5 years without any effect, perhaps it is time for America's politicians, if only those who pander to the wealth and wage inquality populism, to realize just how grotesque the difference between wages for organized labor vs unorganized, has become.
So a simple solution: want to boost US wages across the board? Then just unionize everyone!
PS: we should also note that such an action would open a whole new can of worms and end up with an even more disastrous outcome for the US economy, however since at this point said economy is truly beyond salvage and merely bounces from one Fed-inflated bubble to another, then the most merciful outcome for everyone involved would probably be to accelerate the inevitable hyperinflationary collapse and let the system reset. Because with every passing day that the US, and global, economy continue on their current, centrally-planned course, the more deadly and disastrous said reset will be when it finally does hit.
