The unemployment rate isn't really 13.3 percent
But it did go down, and that's good news for a new government program that, entirely by accident, redistributes income downward to low-income workers.
My latest, for the New Republic, explains why not even the Bureau of Labor Statistics really believes that the unemployment rate is as low as it says. But unemployment does appear to have fallen in May, as best one can make out from far-from-perfect data, and that makes it harder for conservatives to argue against extending the $600 weekly “sweetener” to unemployment checks.