[skud]

Sending the equities markets up today was the news that initial jobless claims fell by 14, 000 to 442,000. Here is what was between the lines..

From: The wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...9834.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection

"Thursday's latest data set for claims reflects changes the Labor Department made as part of its annual revision to the methodology used to calculate claims. Had the revisions not been made, a Labor Department economist said initial claims would have come in at 453,000 for the week ending March 20."

I sure am glad things are getting better! <sarcasm off>

 

[Dentoro]

What are the revisions? Did is go like..."Mr. Secetary, I think the jobs claims report should look favorable this week......Or we could find another Mr. Secetary."

AHHH McGoverment……Have’n it your way!

 

[FranchiseKid]

Miserable 7 year auction... beyond miserable actually.

 

[skud]

Yup. The bond market seems to be cracking. I think it was Dmitri Orlov (who wrote about the collapse of Russia) that stated the 2 things to watch for was...
1) Central government borrowing collapsing
2) Local governments going bankrupt

The "news", like massaged unemployment figures, is nothing but whitewash to keep up the facade that things are getting better.

 

[LongRider]

The problem with those figures is they only account for those who are getting unemployment checks it does not take into account those who are under employed and those who have been unemployed for so long they can no longer get benefits. Last account I heard based on that criteria places unemployemt nationally is over 20% unemployed or under employed. For sake of clarity an example under employed would be a certified diesel mechanic working part time at a fast food joint