“‘Acceptable level of unemployment’ means the government economist has a job” (Nowlan’s Truism)

“An ‘acceptable level of unemployment’ means that the government economist to whom it is acceptable still has a job” was given as ‘Nowlan’s Truism” in 1978 and “Newlan’s Truism” in 1989. The saying dates in print to at least January 1975. Tha authorship of the saying (whether Nowlan or Newlan or someone else) is unknown.
 
   
Google Books
January 1975, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, pg. 2, col. 3:
As we get it, an “acceptable” level of unemployment means that the economist to whom it is acceptable still has a job.
 
Google News Archive
19 February 1975, Sarasota (FL) Heralad-Tribune, “It happened Last Night” by Earl Wilson, pg. 7B, col. 6:
EARL’S PEARLS: As we understand it (says Pic Larmour), an acceptable level of unemployment means that the economist who think it’s acceptable still has a job.
 
12 March 1975, Dunkirk (NY) Evening Observer, pg. 5, col. 4:
As we get it, an “acceptable” level of unemployment means that the economist to whom it is acceptable still has a job.—Changing Times.
   
Google Books
4 December 1978, New York magazine, pg. 145, col. 2:
In 1976 John Peers, president of the Logical Machine Corporation, and Gordon Bennett, and advertising consultant, placed an ad in The New Yorker for Peers’s ADAM computer. The ad contained “Peers Law”—“The solution to a problem changes the problem.” Readers were invited to send in their own axioms, himilies, laws, principles, and so forth, and the result was overwhelming. Thousands were received and a large selection of these is to be published in a book (Doubleday).
(...)
Nowlan’s Truism: An “acceptable level of unemployment” means that the government economist to whom it is acceptable still has a job.
 
Google Books
1,001 logical laws, accurate axioms, profound principles, trusty truisms, homey homilies, colorful corollaries, quotable quotes, and rambunctious ruminations for all walks of life
By John Peers, Gordon Bennett and George Booth
Garden City, NY: Doubleday
1979
Pg. 99:
Nowlan’s Truism: An “acceptable level of unemployment” means that the government economist to whom it is acceptable still has a job.
 
Google News Archive
22 January 1980, Kingsport (TN) Daily News, “Chuckle,” pg. 1:
An acceptable level of unemployment means that the government economist to whom It is acceptable still has a job.
   
Google Books
The New Official Rules:
Maxims for muddling through to the twenty-first century
By Paul Dickson
Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co.
1989
Pg. 157:
Newlan’s Truism. An acceptable level of unemployment means that the government economist to whom it is acceptable still has a job. — anonymous; from John W. Gustafson.
 
Google Books
Guide to College Majors:
Everything you need to know to choose the right major
By Princeton Review (Firm)
New York, NY: Random House/Princeton Review
2010
Pg. 515:
Newlan’s Truism An “acceptable” level of unemployment means that the government economist to whom it is acceptable stilt has a job.
 
ivman’s blague
Do You Understand Economists?
Posted Mon, 19 Jul 2010 at 6:45 am
(...)
Newlan’s Truism on the Natural Rate of Unemployment: An “acceptable” level of unemployment means that the government economist to whom it is acceptable still has a job.