Not so good, Not so bad...

[exedir]

And yes it is, it is all about numbers, sorta.

6.6% is not the alcoholic content of malt liquor, it is the stated Unemployment Number from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the report month of January, 2014. And it is a lower number than December, 2013 where Unemployment was reported as 6.7%. There is the downside, however, of the number of jobs created as reported and adjusted. January was lower than estimates and the adjustment to December was negative. However, the second one, the participation rate increased a like month-to-month which meant that as a number of those that could be employed, more were.

So, what to make of all these numbers? In general, there is a recovery going on, a slow one and one that has a long, long way to go to get to employment levels prior to the 'Great Recession'. But, wait, not all bad news. The buffet punch bowl offered by the Fed is still Wall Street's to use in that the Fed has to keep free money going for certainly a while longer to 'aid' the recovery, even though corporate profits are high and equities still at record levels.

As to Main Street, it is a recovery stupid. The quantity of jobs and quality of jobs still equal to a slow, long and possibly fragile economy for employment. Worse, there are structural changes that just have eliminated whole classes of jobs and status of employment that paid well and had good benefits. And we now have a bi-polar workforce of the overqualified, over-experienced, older workers against the under- qualified, no-experience, young and racially defined workers vs. the needed qualifications of an ocean of STEM background and experience, to handle the best and highest paying jobs that are now available.

And yes, it is unfair to be a worker in America today, and that is just too bad. The idea that somehow collective bargaining is a better deal for America and Americans is so thirties and red. Today the premium is mobility, flexibility and ability to live on what you can make, and no, this isn't your father's America. And no, it isn't China on the Mississippi either, but closer to the Yangtze than anyone would like.

[LoveLife&Laughter]

Collective bargaining is thirties and red?

This statement isn't just conservative, it's ignorant, but I repeat myself.  Pray tell about the collective bargaining of Stalin's or Mao's Dictatorships, or the Fascism of Hitler and Mussolini???

Collective bargaining is a better deal for America, much better than welfare queen dictatorial capitalists who depend on the poor tax payers to constantly bail them out.  Hopefully we soon can get rid of uneducated superstition and  ignorant religiosity, the  Republican Party that has been striving to make America a low paying third world economy of a few elite and many serfs.  I see the revolution coming because Democrats and Progressives shoot straight, whereas the Right always seems to shoot themselves or their friends in the face. 

[exedir]

The idea of union and unionization is nothing what it was as marching spirit and struggle of the CIO to organize the car industries in the 30's with sit downs and bloody riots, that with the Roosevelt New Deal administration, made unions a part of the American labor landscape, and in fact help, organize labor to fight WWII.  

However, the idea of the waving the bloody shirt has moved on, on to places like Ukraine, Thailand...only recently did people in Bosnian take to the streets to protest unemployment, while on the same day, people Rio fought with the police due to the level of fares on public transportation, and the cost and corruption of the up coming World Cup and Olympic Games in Brazil.  

Collective bargain is a legal and lawful process between labor, organized labor and the employer.  Unions now represent about 7% of the employed much of it in the public employment.  This is a major change from over 30% of the labor force being represented by organized labor in the 50's.  

The reason is not that unions do not exist, that they don't have collective bargaining rights, though that is changing, what labor unions don't have are members, dues paying ones.  And the reason is that the changes in the workplace that make organizing difficult and employer tactics that make it almost impossible.  And yes, the right is responsible for much of the tactical, but, it is the change in labor, labor markets and the way America and American do business that is mostly responsible for what has happened.  We can not isolate and be isolated like the 30's, China and the rest of the world won't let us.  And if we have a problem with that, it is our problem and we have to recognize all that means, global competition that limits us to living within our means and our ability.

[exedir]

Looks, like Yellen intends to keep the punch bowl on the buffet, indefinitely.

And yes, Wall Street iikes free money, a lot.  For those that have bonds, not so much as to the Fed and what the Fed is doing.

Overall, still no idea how  to really make the recovery robust, and, no one has put away the idea that something could happen bad, like a debt crisis in China as they will have to somehow write off a lot of debt for the poor and dummy infrastructure and the continued operation of state owned and run businesses that are primarily patronage enterprises and make work for important people and clients.

[exedir]

It is the weather, we hope.  

Unemployment up in February, headline number 6.7% unemployed with 'bout 175k jobs added in the month.

Generally, this month is going to be forgotten as it was buried by snow, ice and cold as to what it tells us, or it just could be just wishful thinking and political cover if the trends continue of the last quarter or so.

The participation rate was "higher" which meant that more were looking for work, which means the discouraged either were being forced to look anew or believe there is a hope of getting a job. 

Other problems in the report, was that the overall work week number was down, as more part-time jobs have been created and the long-term unemployment number is up to the highest number in decades.

So what does this all say?  

Wall Street isn't taking the number too seriously as it either shows continued, but slow growth or, insures that the Fed "free" money will continue for the foreseeable future, and even taper might have to be tapered in order to "get the economy" moving again, even though Wall Street has its index numbers at record levels.  

As to Main Street, the February numbers, just means more digging out from under the weather, snow and recession as there are some signs that there will be some growth and some jobs.  The question is, what and where are those jobs and who is going to fill them and is that going to make upward trend or continue to be a discouraging trend  going into the 2014 campaign.  

Currently running on economic results is a thin gruel to most Americans.

[ProblemAgain]

had to talk to customer service from the electric company the other day. geee i ended up talking to the customer support in southeast asia. now for all the bullshit about blaming obama and the federal government for the 'lack of jobs', how bout blaming corporate capitalism for the fact that the economy first of all can't grow enough jobs to offset what they keep shipping out to foreign countries and second of all that the jobs that corporate capitalism has been creating are minimum wage jobs that can't be shipped overseas cause they can't reach thru the screen to hand you your burger from the phillipines or pakistan to you at the drivethru? while you have the conservatives pissing all over themselves about issues, they are the CAUSE of the issues.  (oh and the much vaunted Staples success story seems to be running into some snags. turns out they don't fare well with competition despite all the chest-thumping enthusiasm for unfettered capitalism so they are closing 225 stores even after cutting employees and compensation ...guess the great conservative thinkers like rick perry and mitt romney might just have to rethink all this...)

[LoveLife&Laughter]

Who has to think when like Putin, they just say anything.

The Tea Party is on the record as hating government telling us what to do, gun crazy, and Christian.

So too Conservative Martyr Timothy McVeigh.  

[exedir]

Of course, it is capitalism in action, reduce costs, increase sales...its America and American...

As Woody Allen has been credited as saying..."Never buy retail"....

[exedir]

So, the freshman Fed Chairman had her say and the point was, ah, stay the course.

Low interest rates are the elixir still on the table and in the punch bowl to move and keep moving the economy toward "full" employment which now means something less than 6.5% considering the old bench mark was 4% back in the day, the day when there were a whole lot more jobs available.

So, Yellin has past her first test with the media and took a glancing blow to the stock market, by staying with tapering of the QE  by $10 billion and continues at a $55 billion bond buy from the previous $65 billion of monthly Fed bond buying in order to keep spilling cash into the economy and interest rates low.

The other point Yellin made is this Fed activity is going to be ongoing for a long time...probably as long as the second week of November, 2015, just saying....