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GOOD READS GET INSPIRED GAIN INSIGHT AND Financial Justice: The People's Campaign to Stop Lender Abuse By Larry Kirsch and Robert N. Mayer Financial Justice tells the inside story of how an alliance of citizen campaigners fought to enact the DoddFrank Act and establish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau after the financial meltdown of 2008. Based on extended interviews with more than 30 leading advocates from such groups as the Consumer Federation of America, La Raza, AARP, and the AFL-CIO, it recounts the role these citizen lobbyists played in passing significant financial reforms. Complete Guide to Real Estate Tax Liens and Foreclosure Deeds By Don Sausa This easy, quick read makes the complex business of tax liens and foreclosures intelligible even for novices. Author Don Sausa buys tax liens himself and provides a step-by-step guide on tax lien investing that gets straight to the point with actionable information readers can employ immediately. The book also has an accompanying website where readers can get answers and support for tax liens in their specific state. Greatness: The 16 Characteristics of True Champions By Don Yaeger Author Don Yaeger inspires others to achieve their personal and professional best through his own personal accounts of interviews with sports legends like Walter Payton and Michael Jordan over his 20-year career as a journalist. A long-time associate editor for Sports Illustrated and seven-time New York Times best-selling author, Yaeger shares how everyone—not just athletes—can apply distinct characteristics of greatness to their own lives to achieve success. 18 COMMENTARY: TRUTH . . . AND CONSEQUENCES By Mark Lieberman, Chief Economist for the Five Star Institute Like Diogenes' quest for an honest man, seeking truth—or even consistency—in the monthly employment situation report may prove an endless task. The August employment numbers confounded analysts twice with a less than robust 169,000 month-over-month increase in payrolls and a staggering 58,000 reduction in the initial report on payrolls for July. For those who keep track, June payrolls were initially reported to have increased 195,000 but with this recent report have now been revised down twice: first to 188,000 and later to 172,000. Who knows how low the July (or the August) payroll numbers could go. Payroll report revisions are, to be sure, nothing new. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) initially reported payrolls for March had increased by 88,000 in the release issued at the beginning of April. One month, later March payrolls were reported to have increased 138,000, and one month after that 142,000. That said, the 58,000 downward revision is unusual. The initial payroll report hasn't been reduced by that much since June 2010, when the initial payroll estimate of a loss of 125,000 was changed to a drop of 221,000 jobs and then, one month later, to a loss of 175,000 jobs—suggesting it's no easier to count going down than it is going up. BLS said 74.1 percent of payroll surveys were returned in time for the Employment Situation release with the first set of July numbers. The collection rate was lower for January (72.4 percent) and for August (also 72.4 percent). January's report of 157,000 new payroll jobs was reduced to 119,000 in the first revision before settling at 148,000 in the final report. The "final" report may not be final. BLS said it would release its annual "benchmark" revisions at the end of September, which will change the numbers yet again. While it may not be easy to reconcile the numbers in the employment situation report with themselves, it is even more difficult to reconcile BLS numbers don't seem to square with recent surges in sales of new and existing single-family homes. them with other economic indicators. For example, builder confidence, according to the Housing Market Index of the National Association of Home Builders, has increased 34 percent in the last three months, vaulting into positive (above 50 on a scale of 1 to 100) territory in June for the first time since April 2006. In those same three months, residential construction employment is down 0.2 percent, a loss of about 1,100 jobs. And, even though data on residential permits and starts show gains only in multifamily activity, jobs in the multifamily contractor sector are also down. BLS numbers don't seem to square with recent surges in sales of new and existing single-family homes. While new home sales are up on average more than 20 percent year-over-year and existinghome sales up about 12 percent, the number of mortgage brokers has increased just about 10 percent and appraisers just about 6 percent. The number of underwriters is up just 1.2 percent. If those numbers aren't enough to raise questions about the depth of the housing recovery, consider that in the last three months, payrolls have climbed an aggregate 445,000, while at the same time, the number of multiple jobholders has increased 147,000, which would mean the new payroll jobs themselves didn't do as much to reduce unemployment. Of the new jobs, about 221,000, almost 50 percent, were in the two lowest-paying industry sectors—leisure and hospitality (83,000) and retail (138,000) with average weekly earnings of $352 and $523, respectively. Numbers and earnings were far from enough to support a housing recovery. The August employment situation report wasn't the first set of data to suggest trouble on the horizon for the housing recovery. The Case-Shiller home price index for June showed continuing, albeit slower, house price gains, pushing affordable homeownership still further from low-paid workers. That is, until the numbers change again. Hear Mark Lieberman on POTUS (Sirius-XM 124) on Fridays at 6:20 a.m. (EDT).

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