ShareWhile I see the job numbers as pretty much what was expected, the data do make clear that we are seeing a major jobless recovery. David Rosenberg has a piece out today that goes right to the heart of the issue:
All we can say is that if the overwhelming consensus is correct that the recession [...]

ShareThe employment market is pretty grim. We’re talking a double digit unemployment rate – and that’s just the base rate. The comprehensive unemployment rate is now 17.5% in the US.  This is a fact not lost on our politicians. Today, Barack Obama signed a bill that extends unemployment benefits and home buyer tax credits. But,, [...]

ShareAverage weekly hours a record low of 33.0. Stock futures now down. The household survey says we have lost 1.3 million jobs in three months. 17.5% U-6 unemployment. Median duration of unemployment is now 18.7 weeks from 15.4 just 3 months ago – ugly.
Here is an excerpt from the release (bolding added).
The unemployment rate rose [...]

ShareWhen it comes to the housing meltdowns in the richest economies, the US has been matched only by Spain, Ireland and the UK. All four countries have seen spectacular losses of wealth in the housing sector over the last two years.
The response by all four governments was to apply as much stimulus as they reasonably [...]

ShareThis morning, I ran across a post by Prieur du Plessis, which linked out to a Stephen Roach interview on Charlie Rose.
Roach is the head of Morgan Stanley Asia and has been a voice to listen to when trying to discern where China is headed and how its relationship with the United States will develop. [...]

ShareMarshall Auerback here with a few thoughts on employment policy and the limit to government spending in a fiat currency regime.
The Detroit story Edward just posted illustrates that we should start by eliminating the notion that society requires a buffer stock of unemployed people to discipline wage demands and protect profits.  Not only is this immoral and [...]

ShareIn July, I blogged on an interesting take on how employment affects equity returns during cyclical recoveries by Van Hoisington and Lacy Hunt. Their thesis was that a recovery in which employment lags the overall upturn significantly is bearish for stocks. Since then, employment has indeed lagged other economic indicators.  Witness the most recent employment [...]

ShareThis comes from the blog News from 1930:
An out-of-work broker asked a friend who owned a circus for work. His friend said the circus gorilla had recently died, and if the broker wanted to get into the gorilla’s skin, swing around, growl, and amuse the children, he could have the job. Things went well until [...]

ShareThe U.S. economy lost 216,000 jobs in August according to figures released by the Department of Labor. This brought the unemployment rate up to 9.7% from 9.4% in July.  Despite the large rise in the headline unemployment rate (U-3), the figure for job losses was in line with expectations and dovetailed with the figures released [...]

ShareRecently Allan Meltzer, a former Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve, wrote a widely noted and provocative article in the Wall Street Journal called “What Happened to the ‘Depression?’” He called for an end to deficit-inducing stimulus because the cries of Depression from noted mainstream economists has been proven false.  His thesis is that these [...]