OT: "For the First Time in 30 Years, Unemployment Fell in Every State in 2014"

Dougster
"Unemployment fell in every state and the nation’s capital last year—something that hadn’t happened since 1984."

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2015/03/0…

But back in October Stevie-girl and The Economist were pounding the table daily about what a dire situation the economy was in.

The circle-jerk on the right said "yeah, figures since we did not implement the gold standard, or listen to Libertarians and Ayn Rand".

Meanwhile, the circle-jerk on the left said "there is no such boom, but even if there was it would only benefit the top 1%. Er, well except for doctors who vote Democrat and are nice guys. Oh, ok, 1% is just affluent. Only the top 0.1% we have a problem with. Well, that's okay too as long as they didn't make their money in finance. Oh wait, Soros... Damn! Ok, making in it finance is okay too but not inheriting it. Only the Cock Brothers we have a problem with."

11 comments

Latest

Dougster
10 years ago
Looks like a

B-O-O-M

to me. But don't tell Stevie-girl.
Josh43
10 years ago
Shit, another withering attack on my ability to put out a consistent argument. I think you have to group incomes into one of those hystegramm thingys and look at all the bins to see a trend. But math is really hard I hate the Kochs either way.

So good employment numbers. Maybe you'll get your wish for higher interest rates soon...
rickdugan
10 years ago
In a vacuum, those numbers would be tepid from a historical standpoint. But a big part of the reason for the purportedly lower unemployment numbers is that labor participation rates continued to decrease throughout 2013 and stabilized below 63% from December of 2013 to today.

Yes things are getting a bit better, but it has been an agonizingly slow crawl. To this day, we still have less people back in the F/T workforce than we had in 2005, despite the fact that our population has grown by 24 million people since 2005, and still far less than the high of 2007.

And, lest we forget, we still have significant portions of our economy being propped up by near zero interest rates. I am very concerned about what will happen to the stock and housing markets when interest rates are finally increased.

So let's calm down with all of this boom nonsense. At best, our current growth could be characterized as fragile, with a lot of headwinds.
Josh43
10 years ago
^^^^the historical connection between interest rates and the housing market is not nearly as strong as you might think.

Stock market is another story. PE of the overall market using 10yr trailing earnings is near 1929 levels right now. Good time to be a cautious investor...
sharkhunter
10 years ago
I'm looking forward to a potential 67 billion dollars in EU QE in only 15 trading days this month. You remember it was 2009 when the Fed started their bond buying program and Obama made a short casual statement. "looks like a good time to buy stocks" or something like that.
Massive asset buying in the EU will likely drive up global stock markets in my opinion.
Today is another shake out day in my opinion. Market makers like to shake the tree.
Could be wrong though. No one is always right.
Tiredtraveler
10 years ago
Yep, there are plenty part time fast food and Wal Mart jobs. Welcome to Obamavision of his socialist paradise.
He spends his days on the golf course his Ho jet off to Spain with 200 of her closest friends on our dime.
"No Bread? Let Them Eat Cake!"
Dougster
10 years ago
RickyBoy been reading ZeroHedge with their awesome track record? Lol! No it hasn't been about low interest rates it's about the product cycle. Get a clue, RickyBoy!
Dougster
10 years ago
TT: "Yep, there are plenty part time fast food and Wal Mart jobs. "

Plenty of high paying tech and finance jobs and a huge shortage of qualified works. Everyone is benefiting form this boom.
Dougster
10 years ago
That's 295,000 additions even considering the layoff in the oil sector.

B-O-O-M!
sharkhunter
10 years ago
Since 1980, the market has returned around 23.5% in the 9 months before an interest rate increase. Markets were a bit bumpy though.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-w…
Mate27
10 years ago
We've never had interest rates rise from 0%, so historically we have nothing to compare to with our current situation. The fed will raise slowly so everyone can adjust to each step along the way. It always has been a bumpy market, so any interest rate talk is just a red herring. Don't get in the guessing game because just as u think things will go one way, it will go the opposite. Commit to the long term and invest in the USA. You will always lose betting against that strategy, and it's been historically proven 100% of the time.
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