With Friends like these...

Who needs enemies?  And for that matter, who needs realistic data for that matter?  Why report actual numbers when totally fudged reports just look so much better?!  The NBER has just told us the longest recession seen since WWII ended in June 09.  I'm sure the 17% of underemployed workers in the US are just too lazy to find real work and in fact it was probably their life goal to work part time at McDonald's.  See this.  This surely explains why gold is breaking to new highs this morning and is continuing to do so as we speak.  Wait, gold goes up when everything is good right?