Already was, but.... I guess I'm just no longer feeling the love:
"Facing a soft global economy, Fed’s apt to keep status quo" by Martin Crutsinger | Associated Press October 28, 2014
WASHINGTON — The global economy has slumped. Turmoil has gripped financial markets. And the US job market, despite steady gains, still isn’t fully healthy.
Yet when the Federal Reserve meets this week, the economy that the Fed will discuss has been strengthening, thanks to solid consumer and business spending, manufacturing growth, and a surge in hiring that has reduced the unemployment rate to a six-year low of 5.9 percent.
Still, global weakness poses a potential threat to US growth. The housing industry is still struggling. And Fed chairwoman Janet Yellen has stressed that while the unemployment rate is close to a historically normal level, other gauges of the job market remain a concern. These include stagnant pay, many part-time workers who can’t find full-time jobs, and a historically high number of people who have given up looking for a job and are no longer counted as unemployed.
What’s more, inflation remains so low that it isn’t even reaching the Fed’s long-term target rate of 2 percent. When inflation is excessively low, people sometimes delay purchases — a trend that slows consumer spending, the economy’s main fuel.
The low short-term rates the Fed has engineered are intended, in part, to lift inflation.
Low inflation isn’t all bad, of course. One factor in today’s ultra-low inflation has been sinking oil prices, which leave consumers with more money to spend on other items that drive economic growth.
See: OPEC Meeting
********
‘‘Given that the Fed has kept interest rates low for so long and artificially boosted asset prices such as stocks for so long, a period of instability is inevitable and we are seeing that now,’’ said David Jones, author of a new book on the Fed’s first 100 years.
The central bank is increasingly looking beyond the United States....
Related: Japanese Pussies
That's why the stock market hasn't gone down after the Fed said they stopped printing money. Japan ruining their own economy to do it, too.
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The first place they look:
"ECB signals broader action to stimulate economy" by Jack Ewing | New York Times November 07, 2014
FRANKFURT — The European Central Bank on Thursday moved closer to the same kind of large-scale purchases of government bonds used by the Federal Reserve to stimulate growth in the United States, implying that it was ready to pump as much as 1 trillion euros — the equivalent of $1.24 trillion — into the economy.
Actually, some of the Fed money was used to bailout Europe.
“This is the main message: The balance sheet will continue to expand,” Mario Draghi, the president of the central bank, said at a news conference. He added that if current measures, including purchases of private sector assets, did not do the job, the central bank was ready to go further.
The print money bit failed here (unless you were in the top 1%).
European stock indexes rose as investors interpreted the remarks to mean that the central bank was moving closer to quantitative easing, or QE, the large-scale buying of government bonds, which is also known as sovereign debt.
“We’re one step closer to full-blown sovereign QE,” Luke Bartholomew, investment manager at Aberdeen Asset Management, said in a statement.
********
Draghi also sought to rebut reports of dissension among the 24 members of the central bank’s governing council, which includes all the heads of national central banks in the eurozone. He emphasized that all members had signed off on a statement implying increased readiness to deploy quantitative easing.
“It’s fairly normal to disagree about things,” he said. At their customary dinner Wednesday night, Draghi said, members of the council had “perhaps the best discussion we ever had.”
Carsten Brzeski, an analyst at ING Bank, said in a note to clients, “If there was any internal conflict within the governing council, Mario Draghi hushed it.”
Draghi said the central bank’s recent steps, including the private asset purchases and cheap loans made available to banks, are expected to increase the size of its balance sheet “towards the dimensions it had at the beginning of 2012.”
The value of central bank assets, including gold, money owed by banks, and securities owned by the bank, was about 3 trillion euros ($3.75 trillion) at the end of March 2012, compared with 2.1 trillion euros ($2.60 trillion) this month.
The central bank’s balance sheet peaked in 2012 as banks took advantage of cheap central bank loans to compensate for a dearth of market funds.
Draghi said he expected the supply of private-sector assets to expand because of central bank demand.
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Related: O.E.C.D. Calls for Fiscal and Monetary Measures to Spur E.U. Growth
They have:
"European Central Bank makes broad hints at stimulus; Euro declines against dollar" by Jack Ewing, New York Times January 03, 2015
FRANKFURT — A strong indication on Friday that the European Central Bank is on the verge of aggressive action to stimulate the economy, just as the Federal Reserve is dialing back its stimulus, helped push the euro to its lowest level against the dollar since 2010.
One central bank stops printing money, another one starts their printing presses up. It's a shell game, folks, and they just want to keep the shells moving as long as possible.
Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, said in an interview published in the German newspaper Handelsblatt that the risk that the central bank would not be able to meet its main task of keeping inflation from being too low or too high was greater than it had been six months ago.
***************
Investors interpreted Draghi’s comments to mean that the central bank is moving closer to broad-based purchases of government bonds, the same kind of “quantitative easing” that the Fed used to push down market interest rates in the United States — and is phasing out as growth picks up.
Full blown, I've been told, and the description is accurate -- as if it is some sort of contagious illness.
The diverging paths of the two central banks prompted investors to put money into dollars, on the expectation that interest rates in the United States will rise and offer a better return than in Europe, where rates are falling....
The larger picture is not merely that the dollar is gaining against the euro. Signs that the Fed is getting closer to raising its benchmark interest rate from zero have helped the US currency to soar against its counterparts in Japan, Britain, and in major emerging markets. Against a broad basket of currencies, the dollar has risen more than 13 percent since September to its highest level in almost six years.
Draghi’s comments were part of an ever-louder drumroll from top ECB officials signaling that quantitative easing could come as soon as the next monetary policy meeting, on Jan. 22.
“There are growing indications that the ECB will decide as early as January to buy government bonds on a large scale,” Ralph Solveen, an economist at Commerzbank, wrote in a note to clients Friday.
In his comments to Handelsblatt, Draghi sounded more concerned than he has in the past that low inflation is becoming entrenched in the eurozone, with potentially grave consequences for the growth.
Draghi said there was a risk that low inflation could cause people to delay making purchases. If so, that would be a classic symptom of deflation, a broad-based decline in prices that eventually undercuts company profits and leads firms to cut workers.
The risk of deflation “cannot be ruled out completely, but it is limited,” Draghi told Handelsblatt. But he added, “If inflation remains low for a long time, people might expect prices to fall even further and postpone their spending.”
What if we have no money to spend, seeing as the 1% have been scooping it all up?
What then?
“We are not there yet,” Draghi said. “But we need to tackle this risk.”
Printing money will cause inflation -- and the purchasing power will be worth much less.
So much for that chump-change minimum wage raise. That will get eaten up in the central bank printing pre$$es.
***********
The last time the euro was so low, Greece’s debt problems were causing havoc in the eurozone, and there was fear the common currency would not survive. Greece is again in turmoil, with coming elections likely to usher in a left-wing government, but is no longer the main cause of the euro’s decline.
We've already talked about Greece this morning.
The concern now is that the eurozone is already stuck in the same kind of stagnation that has afflicted Japan for two decades.
Did you see what happened in the election?
The weaker euro is a mixed blessing for the struggling eurozone economy.
Wasn't the euro supposed to be a win-win for everyone?
European exporters will gain a competitive advantage against foreign rivals because their products will become cheaper for customers who pay in dollars or other currencies that tend to track with the dollar.
A weaker euro could also push up inflation — a desirable outcome at the moment — because foreign goods would become more expensive in euro terms....
However, a weaker euro also has negative effects in the eurozone. Because oil is usually priced in dollars, a weak euro cancels out some of the economic benefit from the recent drop in oil prices.
Somehow you are always getting screwed by the $y$tem, global citizen.
Why i$ that?
--more--"
China is also tied in:
"China’s central bank cuts interest rates to boost growth" by Joe McDonald, Associated Press November 22, 2014
BEIJING — China’s central bank unexpectedly slashed interest rates on Friday to reenergize the world’s number two economy, joining a growing list of major economies that are trying to encourage growth in the face of a global slowdown.
On top of the rate cut, Chinese authorities promised to inject credit into the financial system if needed. Meanwhile, the president of the European Central Bank said Friday he was ready to step up stimulus for the 18-nation eurozone economy, whose performance continues to disappoint. And Japan’s government this week delayed a tax increase after the country slipped back into recession. That move came after Japan’s central bank ramped up its stimulus efforts at the end of last month.
News of China’s actions and the ECB’s promises triggered a surge in stock markets.
*********
The moves Friday highlighted an increasing divide in the global economy. The United States shows signs of steady growth, prompting the Fed to rein in its stimulus efforts.
So far, the US has escaped any drag from the slowdown overseas. Fed policy makers said at a meeting last month that the impact on the United States would be ‘‘quite limited.’’
Jay Bryson, an economist at Wells Fargo Securities, said the United States is ‘‘relatively insulated’’ from overseas developments.
Really? We are told it is a global world and all interconnected when things go bad.
Whatever the problem, it is never the fault of banks. Blame anything but.
Exports are a smaller source of growth than in other developed nations and many major employers, such as health care and education providers, are largely unaffected by overseas activity.
The slowdown in global growth has become an increasing concern for policy makers.
I don't understand why when we are insulated and largely unaffected. WTF?
Japan confirmed this week that it has fallen back into recession and will delay a tax increase to help consumer spending.
Never really came out of one (like here); it's just that the upper crust and cla$$ of society (like here) made such ma$$ive gains it covered the rest.
In Europe, it is not only weak growth but also the low inflation rate that is worrying the ECB. Low inflation can weaken an economy further by encouraging delays in spending and investment.
Are you getting as sick of the mixed me$$ages as I am?
As indicators for the eurozone and global economy disappoint, ECB president Mario Draghi was firm in his message: ‘‘We will do what we must to raise inflation and inflation expectations as fast as possible,’’ he said in a speech in Frankfurt.
But the prospect of higher rates in the United States is exposing the country to a potentially painful rise in the dollar — currencies tend to strengthen with higher rates.
The dollar hit a seven-year high against the yen, and jumped nearly 1 percent against the euro on Friday.
The People’s Bank of China said it is trying to address ‘‘financing difficulties’’ caused by a shortage of credit.
It also said the move was not a change in monetary policy and economic conditions are within an ‘‘appropriate range.’’
China’s economic growth fell to a five-year low of 7.3 percent in the latest quarter and manufacturing and other indicators are declining.
What I wouldn't give to see such growth figures here.
The rate charged by banks for loans to each other rose this week to its highest level since early October, reflecting reduced availability of credit, a concern for Chinese economic planners....
Who is trying to $queeze them?
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"Fracture points multiply across global economy" by Danica Kirka, Associated Press November 18, 2014
LONDON — The global economy’s problems seem to be multiplying.
Hours after the leaders of the world’s 20 most developed economies sought to boost confidence by promising to increase global output by $2 trillion over five years, Japan said it had fallen into recession.
That leaves the country with the world’s third-largest economy on a long and growing list of troubled economies. China is slowing, as well, and Europe can’t seem to take off.
Among major economies, only the United States and Britain are growing at decent rates, and how long that lasts depends on how much trouble their trading partners are in.
Britain’s prime minister, David Cameron, warned in an opinion piece in the Guardian newspaper on Monday that the ‘‘red warning lights are flashing’’ for the world economy.
Here’s a look at the problems in some key economies.
■ Japan’s recession: This setback was not in the plan.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had pledged to end two decades of stagnation with a strategy that included big economic reforms and stimulus. But the economy contracted at an annual pace of 1.6 percent in the third quarter after housing and business investment dropped following a sales tax increase.
The contraction came despite predictions the economy would rebound from a drop in the previous three months.
Consumer spending is faltering as the population shrinks and ages. Household incomes peaked more than a decade ago, and workers are increasingly having trouble making ends meet.
Manufacturers, meanwhile, have lost their leading edge in innovation while shifting production offshore.
Japan’s weakness could hinder growth elsewhere if its companies cut investment and buy fewer imports such as machinery and raw materials.
Related:
"The contraction in Japan’s economy last quarter was larger than initially estimated, according to figures released Monday that confirmed a recession ahead of an election on Sunday. The world’s third-biggest economy shrank an annualized 1.9 percent in the July-September quarter compared with the initial estimate of a 1.6 percent contraction. A sales tax hike to 8 percent from 5 percent on April 1 is the main reason why the economy has faltered after recovering from the last recession in late 2012."
You would think the pinhead politicians in Washington would understand that, but nope!
■ China’s declining growth: Growth in China, a manufacturing giant, is slowing — from 10.4 percent in 2010 to an estimated 7.5 percent this year. Explosive growth in China has been one of the primary drivers of the world economy for the past decade, so its slowdown is having ripple effects.
The question for Chinese leaders is how to let the country’s economy slow to more sustainable growth rates without having a ‘‘crash landing.’’ The government is trying to boost domestic spending while easing its dependence on trade and state-sponsored investment.
That just made me think of Air Asia and Kentucky.
Related:
"China’s export growth tumbled in November and imports contracted unexpectedly in a new sign of weakness in the world’s second-largest economy. Exports rose by a weaker-than-expected 4.7 percent, down from October’s 10.6 percent, trade data showed Monday. Imports were forecast to post a small increase but instead contracted by 6.7 percent from a year earlier. China’s economic growth slowed to a five-year low of 7.3 percent in the latest quarter. The ruling Communist Party is trying to cool growth to a more sustainable level."
How can all these experts and governments be so wrong all the time?
■ Eurozone woes: The economy of the 18 euro countries has been struggling to grow since it emerged from recession last year.
Europe’s problems are compounded by the threat of deflation — when prices fall. A sustained drop would hurt growth by encouraging people to delay purchases in hopes of better deals later on.
Government debt, meanwhile, remains high in France, Italy, and Britain. That means they will have to limit spending for years.
That's why their people are in the streets.
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At least it's good for tourists!
"Dropping euro value a boon for tourists; Already dipping in anticipation of bank stimulus" by David McHugh, Associated Press December 02, 2014
FRANKFURT — If that creme brulee in a Paris cafe seems a bit cheaper for US tourists next summer, they may have the European Central Bank to thank for it.
Economists are lowering their forecasts for the value of the euro on expectations the bank will provide more support to the eurozone economy. Central Bank stimulus tends to weigh on a currency.
But ultimately, the euro’s drop itself could be the biggest boon to the eurozone economy as it helps exporters and encourages tourism.
All I can think of is who would ever want to board an AmeriKan airline and fly out of or back to an AmeriKan airport. If afforded the opportunity to go somewhere else, why wouldn't you?
Central Bank officials are debating whether to provide more stimulus; that could come in the first months of next year. Bank president Mario Draghi has been emphatic about the bank’s willingness to do more.
Yet the bank may already have achieved some of the most powerful effects of any future stimulus, as the currency is falling in anticipation of action.
*********
Some analysts question how effective stimulus measures would be. For instance, bond purchases are meant to drive interest rates down, making life easier for companies, consumers, and governments. Yet bond yields are already very low.
It's okay; they know nothing else to do.
US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew has urged countries not to deliberately try to weaken their currencies to gain trade advantages. But in Europe’s case, US officials would be relieved to see a recovery. Stagnation in Europe has been weighing on the US and global economies....
I'm tired of the money manipulation by the masters as reported by their mouthpiece. Sorry.
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Meanwhile, back home:
"Fed ends bond buying and cites brighter job market" by Martin Crutsinger | Associated Press October 30, 2014
WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve cited an improving economy Wednesday as it ended its landmark bond-buying program and pointed to gains in the job market — a key condition for an eventual interest rate hike.
The Fed did reiterate its plan to maintain its benchmark short-term rate near zero ‘‘for a considerable time.’’ Most economists predict it will not raise that rate, which affects many consumer and business loans, before mid-2015.
But in a statement ending a policy meeting Wednesday, the Fed noted that the job market is strengthening.
******
The Fed said the excess of would-be job holders is ‘‘gradually diminishing.’’ It also noted solid hiring gains and a lower unemployment rate, now 5.9 percent. One of the Fed’s major goals is to achieve maximum employment, which it defines as an unemployment rate between 5.2 percent and 5.5 percent.
Used to be 3%, and is that really one of their major goals?
That all suggested that the Fed is looking toward an eventual rate hike.
Investors responded to confirmation that the Fed would end its bond buying program and perhaps move closer to a rate increase by positioning themselves for higher rates. The dollar rose against other currencies, bond yields ticked up, the price of gold fell, and stock prices slipped. The Dow Jones industrial average closed down a modest 31 points, or 0.2 percent.
The Fed repeated previous language that the likelihood of inflation running persistently below its 2 percent target has diminished, even though inflation is being slowed by lower energy prices and other factors. The Fed noted that expectations for inflation have remained stable, something it strives to achieve.
Yeah, control of the money supply and loaning it at interest to the U.S government to distribute is it's major goal.
On balance, economists saw the Fed’s statement as showing less concern about unusually low inflation, which has helped delay a rate increase. Some analysts said the market reaction Wednesday suggested that investors saw the Fed statement as at least setting the stage for rate hikes starting next year....
ECB is panicking!
Fed chairwoman Janet Yellen has stressed that while the unemployment rate is close to a historically normal level, other gauges of the job market remain a concern. These include stagnant pay; many part-time workers who cannot find full-time jobs; and a historically high number of people who have given up looking for a job.
Conservative critics of the bond buying program hailed the move to end the purchases....
So do I. All it did was pour more wealth into the pockets of government and the 1%.
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Time to review:
"US economy grew at 3.9 percent rate in 3rd quarter" by Martin Crutsinger, Associated Press November 25, 2014
$ee why!!!!
WASHINGTON — The US economy grew even faster in the third quarter than initially thought, posting the strongest six months of growth in more than a decade and pulling further ahead of other big economies of the world.
*********
Together with a 4.6 percent surge in the spring, the country has recorded its biggest back-to-back quarterly performance since 2003.
‘‘The question of whether the economy is accelerating or will accelerate is no longer a question; we can say somewhat definitively that the economy has already accelerated,’’ said Dan Greenhaus, chief strategist at BTIG, in a research note.
In contrast, other advanced economies are struggling.
The eurozone economy barely grew in the third quarter, and inflation is a mere 0.4 percent, raising concerns of deflation. Japan unexpectedly found itself back in recession in the July-September period. And momentum in emerging economies such as China and Brazil is also shaky.
Tuesday’s data further push the world’s biggest economy ‘‘onto a different page than Europe and Japan,’’ said Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets.
Fueling third-quarter growth was consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of economic activity. That climbed at a 2.2 percent rate in the three-month period, an improvement from an initial estimate of 1.8 percent. Business investment in equipment shot up at a 10.7 percent rate, revised up from 7.2 percent.
GDP has been on a roller coaster this year. It started with a steep slide in activity in the first three months of the year when the economy contracted at a 2.1 percent rate, largely due to a severe winter.
Analysts believe momentum could decelerate to around 2.5 percent in the current quarter but then pick up again in 2015. They expect growth of around 3 percent, representing a sustained acceleration in activity six years after the Great Recession.
Since the recession ended in June 2009, growth in the United States has averaged at rates just above 2 percent. The lackluster recovery has been blamed on the financial crisis and the severity of the recession. Such downturns are usually harder to recover from because they require repairs to the banking system to get credit flowing again.
Blah, blah, blah, blah, banker$peak, lame-a$$ excu$es, blah, blah, blah, blah.
But economists believe 2015 will be the year when the recovery shifts into a higher gear, in part because they expect the government itself to help.
Don't they always?
Government spending grew at a 4.2 percent rate in the third quarter, the strongest performance since the spring of 2009. The gain was bolstered by a 16 percent surge in defense spending.
Oh, I see!
It was the NEVER-ENDING WARS and the CAMPAIGN against ISIS that made EVERYTHING LOOK GOOD!!
The optimism is being fueled by modifications in government budget and tax policies. Across-the-board cuts in government spending and tax increases approved to control huge budget deficits had been holding back growth. By next year, economists believe, a better budget picture will begin to pay off and fuel growth.
See: Last Lame Duck Se$$ion
Looking good for $ome!
Meanwhile, an improving job market is expected to provide households with more income, boosting consumer spending. The sharp drop in oil prices should also put more money in Americans’ pocketbooks as they spend less at the pump.
ALL GOOD NEWS, I gue$$.
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Related:
Applications for US jobless aid tick up
Whaa.... ?????
US consumer confidence jumps to 7-year high
While consumer confidence has been trending higher, it still lags pre-recession highs.
That's because 95% of us never came out of it and fell further behind.
"Solid hiring provides little boost to wages" by Christopher S. Rugaber | Associated Press November 08, 2014
WASHINGTON — Healthy job growth in the United States has reached a level of consistency unseen in nearly two decades.
They never tire of shoveling $hit, do they?
In the same week that voters signaled discontent with the US economy, the government issued a report that showed employers have added at least 200,000 jobs for nine straight months — the longest such stretch since 1995.
That probably didn't help. Voters saw that and said "Liars," and then voted the other party.
Combine it with an unemployment rate that has slid to 5.8 percent — the lowest since 2008 — and the picture that emerged Friday was of a job market gaining increasing distance from the recession that officially ended nearly 5½ years ago.
The job gain for October was a solid 214,000, on top of a combined 31,000 more in August and September than the government had previously estimated.
The steady improvement contrasts with the struggles of economies overseas, a key reason the Federal Reserve is withdrawing its stimulus just as other central banks ramp up theirs.
What did I say above?
This week, for example, the European Central Bank opened the door wider for further help for a eurozone economy that may be on the brink of another recession.
The US job market is hardly without its own weaknesses.
What?
********
Some economists say, though, that they’re seeing early signs of rising pay, especially as more jobs emerge in higher-paying sectors.
Wall Street does not like that.
If so, more workers could begin to enjoy thicker paychecks in coming months.
They have been hearing that for five years, and it has not come true; in fact, they have FALLEN FURTHER BEHIND while the extraordinarily wealthy ma$$ively benefited!
A broad measure of pay and fringe benefits, which captures bonus pay that the jobs report’s gauges miss, has risen in the past six months at its fastest pace since 2008.
Oh, so the bank bonuses lifted all boats, yup.
Good freekin' Christ!
Pay gains in some industries are outpacing the national average. For workers in the hotel, restaurant and entertainment industry, hourly pay has risen 3.5 percent in the past year. Retail pay has risen 2.6 percent. So has construction pay.
And hiring has increased in middle- and higher-paying industries, a change from earlier in the recovery when job creation. Job gains have picked up in construction, manufacturing, professional and business services, and government.
That was where the bull$hit print ended.
‘‘We think that there is plenty of evidence to suggest that . . . wage growth is accelerating,’’ said Paul Ashworth, an economist at Capital Economics.
The US unemployment rate fell in October even as more Americans began looking for work. That suggests that more out-of-work people were encouraged by the brightening jobs picture.
‘‘This was a great month for the American labor market,’’ said James Marple, an economist at TD Bank. ‘‘The US job engine is not just chugging along, it is gaining speed.’’
PFFFFFFFFFT!
Sophia Koropeckyj, an economist at Moody’s Analytics, calculates that 34 percent of jobs gained in the July-September quarter were in mid-paying industries, up from just 21 percent a year ago. Higher-paying jobs made up 27 percent, up from 16 percent. Lower-paying jobs constituted 39 percent, down from 66 percent a year ago.
Economists say the rising US economy — the world’s largest — is unlikely to provide much spillover help to sputtering economies overseas. Though the US economy accounts for one-fifth of global output, Europe and Japan face major hurdles to faster growth. These include aging populations, crushing government debt, and heavily regulated job markets.
‘‘It helps at the margin, but it’s not going to do enough to turn around those economically depressed regions,’’ Sal Guatieri, an economist at BMO Capital Markets, said of the improving US economy.
So what? From what I was told above, we don't need them.
XPOLogistics, a shipping company, has hired 250 people in the past three months and has 300 open jobs. The company connects manufacturers, retailers, and other firms that need shipping with independent trucking firms. It has opened a new office in Kansas City, where it plans to hire 125 people.
Scott Malat, the company’s chief strategy officer, said that rising manufacturing output has helped drive growth.
‘‘The economy has been better, and that plays right into our hands,’’ he said.
Analysts say the economic expansion remains strong enough to support the current pace of hiring. Over the past six months, the economy has grown at a 4.1 percent annual rate.
US manufacturers are expanding at the fastest pace in three years, according to a survey by the Institute for Supply Management, a trade group. A measure of new orders showed that factory output will likely continue to grow in coming months. A separate survey by the ISM found that retailers, restaurants and other service companies also grew at a healthy pace last month.
Home sales rose in September at their fastest rate this year, a sign that housing could pick up after a sluggish performance for most of this year.
Still, faltering global growth could create trouble for the US economy in the months ahead.
Yeah, STILL!!!!
That's one of the words that let's you know mounds of bull$hit has come before it.
Exports fell in September, the government said this week, widening the trade deficit. That led many economists to shave their predictions of economic growth in the July-September quarter to an annual rate of 3 percent or less, down from the government’s initial estimate of 3.5 percent.
Yeah, clean up that $tanky me$$!
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"Most Americans streaming back into workforce are finding jobs" by Victoria Stilwell | Bloomberg News November 09, 2014
WASHINGTON — Increasingly confident Americans are finally streaming back into the labor force. The good news — at least recently — is that many are getting hired.
The share of the US population employed climbed to 59.2 percent in October, the highest since July 2009, figures from the Labor Department showed Friday in Washington.
(I refer you to my previous comments regarding Commerce and)
The proportion has climbed 1 percentage point in the past 12 months, marking its best performance since the year ended March 1995.
Job seekers sending out resumes, getting interviews, knocking on doors, and landing new jobs is an important shift in dynamics of the drop in unemployment. No longer is joblessness falling because workers are so discouraged over prospects that they give up and leave the workforce.
‘‘The unemployment rate is now falling for the right reason,’’ said Harm Bandholz, chief US economist at UniCredit Group in New York.
So I'm being told by the $elf-$erving propaganda pre$$.
That could start making the picture of an improving labor market clearer for Federal Reserve policy makers during a time when the unemployment rate’s reliability as a measure of labor- market slack has been called into question. Research from Fed economists published in September showed the drop in workforce participation — caused in large part by retiring baby boomers — has helped cut the unemployment rate since the end of 2007.
‘‘Everybody acknowledges within the Fed that the unemployment rate has been coming down, but some people say the message is not clear because it doesn’t reflect genuine improvement in the labor market,’’ Bandholz said. ‘‘But the employment-to-population ratio — there’s no statistical problem with that measure. It’s going in the right direction.’’
Yeah it is. Doesn't mean I'm buying it.
The jobless rate fell to 5.8 percent in October, its lowest level since July 2008, Friday’s report showed. That occurred even as the labor force participation rate, which measures the share of the working-age population that’s employed or looking for a job, rose to 62.8 percent last month from 62.7 percent.
The civilian labor force grew by 416,000 in October to reach 156.3 million. Employers added more than 200,000 workers to payrolls for a ninth consecutive month.
Must have been all related to military.
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Related:
"The big August setback in sales may have made businesses more cautious about restocking their shelves until they see more evidence of rising demand. When companies add goods to their stockpiles it typically reflects optimism about future demand. But if businesses are cutting back on inventory rebuilding, it can be a sign of concern about future sales....
After all I just read above?
Macy’s Sales Fall as Retailers Struggle to Attract Wary Shopper, but keeping costs down helped its profit rise to $217 million....
All you gotta do.
Brown’s experience is just one example of how debt makes it even harder for low-income families and individuals to break the cycle of poverty — even as they take steps, such as gaining new skills and higher levels of education, that are supposed to help, according to a new study by Crittenton Women’s Union, a Boston nonprofit that helps people find ways out of poverty."
I've got my own $ob $tory, Globe, so f*** off.
At least women can always choose to take care of the kids.... or not, if wealthy and in the right cla$$:
"Child care workers’ pay stagnant over 20 years" by Katie Johnston, Globe Staff November 18, 2014
The earnings of child-care workers have barely increased in about two decades, leaving nearly half of them to rely on public assistance and affecting learning environments during a critical period in child development, according to a report released Tuesday.
The report, by the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at the University of California Berkeley, found that difficulties child-care workers face in making ends meet create high levels of stress that can affect their performance. Recent research has found that adverse interactions with caregivers early on can alter a child’s genetic chemistry, impairing memory, the immune system, and mental health.
“We know that when adults are really stressed it interferes with their ability to provide responsive interactions with children — what children need and what the brain needs,” said Marcy Whitebook, a study coauthor. “It’s not good for kids, it’s not good for the people doing the work, and it’s not good for the parents who are paying so much for these services.”
Child-care workers earn an average of $10.33 an hour nationally, up from an inflation-adjusted $10.20 in 1997.
Massachusetts child-care workers average $12.47 an hour, the highest in the nation, but the rate has increased just 2 cents since 1997, adjusted for inflation.
Yet at the same time, early- education requirements have become more stringent, and the price that parents pay for child care has nearly doubled.
Child-care providers earn only slightly more than fast- food cooks, the report said.
Kitt Cox, who has a bachelor’s degree, spent most of his professional life working in child care but had to hold second or third jobs in restaurants and warehouses to supplement his income at private day-care centers and preschools on the North Shore.
How about giving a couple up so we can have one?
In many cases, child-care workers’ low wages don’t allow them to provide for their families.
************
Nationwide, 46 percent of child-care workers’ families are on public assistance; in Massachusetts, more than a third rely on public support.
Michelle Rubin and her two assistants take care of 10 children under age 5 at Happy Hands Child Care, operated out of the back of Rubin’s home in Greenfield. Rubin, who is divorced, puts in at least 60 hours a week and makes $17,000 a year — not nearly enough to provide for herself and her three children. She gets fuel assistance, the earned income tax credit, and is on MassHealth, the state’s Medicaid program. She also qualifies for food stamps but hasn’t had time to apply.
What a gravy train, huh?
Rubin, who is constantly juggling funds to keep her operation afloat, has been unable to refinance her house because she is often late on her mortgage payments.
Be careful!
“I have gained weight over this because I stress out over it,” she said. “It’s from paycheck to paycheck.”
To qualify for more money from the state, which provides child-care subsidies for low-income families, Rubin has beefed up her curriculum and added a part-time assistant. Still, her rate from the state has risen by less than $5 a day per child since she opened her center in 2000.
Yes, the $tate is always the $avior.
The report, which calls the conditions affecting early- childhood teachers “intolerable,” calls on policy makers to identify a dedicated public funding source for raising wages and establish salary guidelines and workplace standards.
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I don't know if being a nanny is such good work.
At least you are still on break.
Related: Poverty rate in Mass. highest since 1960
Help is on the way:
"One-stop financial centers spreading throughout Eastern Mass." by Deirdre Fernandes, Globe Staff November 28, 2014
When Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen visited Boston in October, she stopped at a Chelsea center where low-income residents boost their job skills, take classes on building their savings, and apply for public benefits, such as food stamps — all under one roof.
It was a chance to see how nonprofits were pooling their resources to help struggling families pull themselves out of poverty.
Yes, the people most responsible for putting you there are here to help you. This stuff is so disgusting.
These one-stop sites, called financial stability centers, are now spreading throughout Eastern Massachusetts as cities and nonprofits look for ways to collaborate, save money on staff and office space, and make it easier for residents to get needed services. Seven centers will open by spring of 2015, including three in Boston.
As budgets are being cut for the very same things, yup.
***********
When people come to these centers, many need immediate help paying rent or buying food. But they also face more persistent problems, such as credit card and student loan debt or bad credit that forces them into high-interest loans or disqualifies them from traditional banking services, diminishing their chances to break the cycle of poverty, advocates for the poor said.
Right, that's what banks are for.
Those issues can takes months and years to address, said Mike Durkin, the United Way’s president. The centers can provide the mix of programs needed to help low-income families to climb the economic ladder.
The centers offer different services depending on the needs of the communities.
Eric Rosengren, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston president and a regional United Way director, said the economic crisis set many back.
The banker is in charge of the charity! OMG!
People struggling don’t simply need food or rental assistance, but help with a range of financial challenges, from building job skills to rebuilding bank accounts....
Yup, wanna get you tied into that goddamn bank at all costs!
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Also see: Yellen: Awareness of economists’ diversity needed
"Economists see wage gains ahead" by Nelson D. Schwartz, New York Times December 16, 2014
Been hearing that for.... never mind.
NEW YORK — For years, even as the economy recovered and the stock market soared, most US workers saw little evidence of better times in their paychecks.
They were/are very good, very, very good, for a certain $elect $ome, and nothing has changed.
But last month’s surprisingly large increase in both average hourly and weekly earnings, along with other encouraging data, have convinced many economists that falling unemployment and increased hiring are finally about to start paying off in terms of wage gains for a broader swath of workers.
That phrase right there usually precedes a propaganda pre$$ lie.
*********
Still, even the seemingly good news for wages in November wasn’t clear-cut.
Yeah, I AM FLIPPING TIRED of the MIXED F***ING ME$$AGES from the propaganda pre$$!!! How did you know?!!
Just how much the typical employee’s pay might go up in the months ahead — and whether most workers will see significant gains or just a select few — is a key question in the economic debate facing Wall Street, academia, officials in the Obama administration and, especially, the Federal Reserve.
Notice the employee is playing no part in that "debate?"
On Tuesday and Wednesday, Fed policy makers will hold their final meeting of the year, followed by a news conference from Janet L. Yellen, the Fed chairwoman, where she is expected to provide further hints about when the Fed will begin raising short-term interest rates after keeping them near zero for the last six years.
The nascent uptick in wages has prompted further warnings from the more hawkish members of the Fed’s policy making council who want the central bank to start tightening monetary policy sooner, rather than later, to ward off what they see as a potential threat of inflation.
But Yellen and a majority of Fed policy makers, pointing to evidence that inflation remains well under the central bank’s 2 percent target, do not appear to be unduly alarmed and probably still prefer to leave interest rates as low as possible until the trend is better established.
The split at the Fed is echoed in Washington, primarily along partisan lines.
I really, really am tired of the $hit-fooleys pre$$ hey!
On Capitol Hill, some Republicans say it is time for the Fed to act, while Democrats in the Obama administration, like Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez, say there is no rush. “The folks at the top end have been doing great, and our prosperity hasn’t been shared.”
And with every second, minute, hour, day, the gap grows wider.
Related: Labor secretary talks wages in Boston
And that's all it is.
By contrast, Representative Kevin P. Brady, Republican of Texas, chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, has called on the Fed to move quickly, but even some conservative economists say the plunge in energy prices gives the central bank more flexibility this time around.
Hmmmmmm!
We know the governments behind it, too!
If wages keep rising, the typical family will have a couple of thousand more dollars to spend in 2015....
The if assumes they are, and that is not a given regarding this pre$$. Sorry.
Professionals on the front lines of the labor market say higher-paid, better-educated workers with specialized skills are still getting the greater share of raises right now.
With more H1-Bs on the way!
“What people want to see is 1999 or 2004, when companies were saying, ‘We’ll hire anyone,’ ” said Tom Gimbel, chief executive of LaSalle Network, a Chicago staffing firm. “That’s not what’s happening now.”
Instead, Gimbel said, salaries are rising in sectors in which experienced workers are harder to find, like technology, finance and higher-level accounting positions, and where salaries tend to be at least $80,000 or more.
Oh, all the wage growth IS going to the WEALTH SECTORS!
For recent college graduates with liberal arts degrees, or workers in call centers and in data processing jobs, where yearly wages are less than $50,000, Gimbel said, “we’re bringing people in at the same salary as 10 years ago.”
I'm hoping all the student debt was worth it, kids.
Gimbel added that new college graduates were still willing to take jobs they might have rejected in the past, like working in a call center.
But the job market is great!
“They figure, “The sooner I get a job, the quicker I can start paying off a mountain of student debt,’” he said. “And for guys working as a lifeguard or in the gym, a call center is white-collar experience.”
Yeah, just lower your expectations and forget about all those promises the $chool and ma$$ media told and sold you.
And by all means, the first thing you need to do is start paying off that debt! It's your best investment, you ignorant and lazy idiot!
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Also see: The stranglehold of debt
You are now en$laved for life and you can't go back to the gold standard, either.
Who could afford to buy some, never mind all that missing gold the Federal Reserve was in charge of?
