Some call it Columbus Day while others call it Indigenous People’s Day, but whether we are celebrating the European discovery of America or lamenting it, today is a federal holiday! We will observe this confusing occasion with our regular Monday Miscellany.
The Rest of the Story about the Jobs Numbers
“The economy is doing great!” the Democrats are telling us. And yet Americans don’t seem to believe that. They think times are hard. “But look at the jobs numbers,” we are told. “The unemployment rate has fallen to just 4.1%!”
Indeed, the September job report showed great news that surprised just about everybody. The job market appeared to be booming. But all is not as it seems, as Tyler Durden points out in his post Behind Today’s Stunning Jobs Report: A Record Surge in Government Workers. He writes (his bolds):
In September, the number of government workers as tracked by the Household Survey soared by 785K, from 21.421 million to 22.216 million, both seasonally adjusted (source: Table A8 from the jobs report). This was the biggest monthly surge in government workers on record. . . .
While government workers soared by the most on record, private workers rose by just 133K, a far more believable number, and one which however would indicate that the recent labor market malaise continues.
“It’s remarkable to see a one-month 3% jump in government jobs,” said economist Andrew Zatlin.
But what difference does it make? We might think the government is too bloated, but as far as employment goes and thus the state of Americans being able to participate in the economy, a job is a job.
So is the government on a hiring spree? Not necessarily. Durbin thinks what we are seeing is a federal agency cooking the books. September is when school starts, and vast numbers of teachers, employed by the government, go back to work. Usually, though, that kind of predictable work force variation is accounted for statistically under the rubric of “seasonally adjusted” jobs numbers.
This time, though, the numbers for teachers don’t seem to be seasonally adjusted, resulting in what looks like a huge influx of government workers and a much-lower unemployment rate. Without that statistical massage, instead of the unemployment rate falling to 4.1%, it rises to 4.5%. This, of course, benefits the current administration as the election approaches.
See also this discussion, which makes the further point that over the last year and a half, most of the much-heralded new jobs being added have been part-time jobs. Which means that, for many Americans, a full-time job isn’t enough to make ends meet, so they are taking on additional part-time work.
What Happened to the Government’s “Internet for All” Program
Three years ago, the Biden administration launched the program “internet for all,” setting aside $42.5 billion for states to provide broadband services to “unserved” communities, most of which are in the rural hinterlands. Vice President Kamala Harris was put in charge of it.
Three years later, not a single project has been started. Why? The same government that has allocated money for this is imposing so many regulations that the money cannot be spent.
According to the Wall Street Journal, companies that do the work must have “hiring preferences for ‘underrepresented’ groups, including ‘aging individuals,’ prisoners, racial, religious and ethnic minorities, ‘Indigenous and Native American persons,’ ‘LGBTQI+ persons,’ and ‘persons otherwise adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality.’” Small TelCom businesses in rural America often don’t have access to qualified technicians with those characteristics.
Satellite services like Elon Musk’s Starlink could reach rural areas easily as could 5G wireless technology. but the Commerce Department is all but refusing any technology other than fiber optics. A Starlink terminal costs around $600; extending 5G for phones would cost a few thousand dollars per connection, but fiber costs tens of thousands of dollars. Building fiber networks require additional permits, a process that delays construction further. Despite the extra expense, the administration favors fiber because it increases the number of jobs. The Commerce also requires companies to pay union wages and to not oppose union organizing. As it jacks up the costs for the small, rural-based TelCom companies, the administration puts strict limits on what they can charge, insisting that the internet access provided be “affordable.”
As a result of all of these rules and regulations, the rural companies that could do the work are not even bidding on the projects.
Brent Christensen of the Minnesota Telecom Alliance recently reported that none of his trade group’s 70 or so members plan to bid for federal grants because of the rate rules and other burdens. “To put those obligations on small rural providers is a hell of a roadblock,” he said. “Most of our members are small and can’t afford to offer a low-cost option.”
Commerce hoped to spread the cash to small rural cooperatives, but the main beneficiaries will be large providers that can better manage the regulatory burden. Bigger businesses always win from bigger government.
Meanwhile, farmers and residents of rural communities still can’t get broadband internet.
Restarting Three Mile Island to Power AI
On March 28, 1979, an accident at the nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, led to a partial meltdown and the release of radioactive gasses into the air. It was the worst accident in the history of American nuclear-power electrical generation and led to a major slowdown in the industry.
Now, though, Three Mile Island is coming back online. In 2028, 49 years after the accident, the nuclear reactor, rebuilt and modernized at the cost of $1.6 billion, will be generating electricity once again. The facility will be renamed the “Crane Clean Energy Center.”
A story from CNBC quotes Joe Dominguez, the CEO of Constellation Energy, which will be operating the project: “The decision here is the most powerful symbol of the rebirth of nuclear power as a clean and reliable energy resource.”
Nuclear-generated electricity done right is indeed a “clean and reliable energy resource.” But the electricity generated by the new Three Mile Island reactor will not go into the nation’s power grid.
The entire output of the nuclear reactor will be purchased by Microsoft in order to power the data centers necessary for their Artificial Intelligence technology. Amazon is already using power from the Susquehanna nuclear plant, also in Pennsylvania, for its web services data center. Oracle is designing a data center that will used three small nuclear reactors.
Already such technology eats up 3% of America’s total electricity, that number going up to 8% by 2030.
This doesn’t count the additional need for electricity required by the planned transition to electric vehicles, which will need as much new power by the end of the decade as is currently consumed by the entire nation of Turkey.
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