Grandma Yellen And The Economic Mushroom Cloud On The Horizon
By: Tony Caldaro
Market Oracle
Oct 05, 2014
Weekend. Saturday. Beautiful Indian summer imitation where I’m presently located in western Europe. Good time to start out with an empty sheet of text file (for lack of a better term), and stream some consciousness.
Most people must have figured out that things in the economic sphere haven’t gotten any quieter lately. That’s at least something. Stock exchanges in the developed world jumped from a -1%+ loss one day to a 1%+ gain the next. Volatility, nerves, and probably ritalin, have returned. You have to wonder what that means in markets reigned supreme by high-frequency robot traders and central banks, but nevertheless, the public perception remains. And perception is key.
At first glance, US data coming in on Friday look positive, with more jobs and a lower unemployment rate of 5.9%. Bloomberg even had a headline that said the real payrolls increase was 600,000 jobs, instead of the ‘official’ BLS 248,000, because American wage slaves allegedly worked 0.1 hour more per week, 34.6, up from 34.5 in August.
The most since May 2008, the article claims, citing Deutsche’s Joseph LaVorgna. I’m sure if y’all clocked in those 0.1 hours, or 6 minutes, later, you really made them count. I just don’t know whether to laugh or cry when I see things like that reported.
What would seem to me to matter more is the rates in labor participation and Americans not in the labor force.Unfortunately, both are still ugly as warthogs and getting worse. New records all around, as Tyler Durden notes:
While by now everyone should know the answer, for those curious why the US unemployment rate just slid once more to a meager 5.9%, the lowest print since the summer of 2008, the answer is the same one we have shown every month since 2010: the collapse in the labor force participation rate, which in September slid from an already three decade low 62.8% to 62.7% – the lowest in over 36 years, matching the February 1978 lows. And while according to the Household Survey, 232,000 people found jobs, what is more disturbing is that the people not in the labor force, rose to a new record high, increasing by 315,000 to 92.6 million!
The Rest…HERE
