What is the economic impact of unemployment?

Has President Obama's pursuit of higher energy prices had a profound impact on the nation's unemployment level?

• According to former Obama supporter Mort Zuckerman of US News and World Report, unemployment at a virtual level of 18%: Mort Zuckerman was on MSNBC, Jansing & Company.... ZUCKERMAN: The headline unemployment rate that you are referring to measures people who have applied for a job in the last four weeks. That's a misleading time span when you've had six million people who have been out of work for six months or longer. If you measure it with U6 rather than U3 measured by people who have applied for a job within the last six months who don't have work then you're looking at an employment rate with 15.7% and if you add to that the 2.3 million discouraged workers who have just given up then you're looking at a real unemployment rate of close to double the 9%, close to 18%. So we have not really made much headway in terms of reducing unemployment.

• Answer:

  Good to know that Obama caused traders to go crazy about oil after Egypt and Libya. I had no idea he was so powerful.