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Economy
"Unexpected" jobless claims up, sales down
2009-08-14
AP: WASHINGTON -- Retail sales disappointed in July and the number of newly laid-off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits rose unexpectedly last week. The latest government reports reinforced concerns about how quickly consumers will be able to contribute to a broad economic recovery.
Wait, didn't the government and Bambi say things were on the rebound?
"There is really no positive spin to put on these numbers," Jennifer Lee, an economist with BMO Capital Markets, wrote in a research note. "The U.S. consumer remains very weak. The jobs situation, while slowly improving, is still dismal."
Hey! Let's raise taxes! That will help!
The Commerce Department said Thursday that retail sales fell 0.1 percent last month. Economists had expected a gain of 0.7 percent.
Dumbasses
Posted by:DarthVader

#13  Bloomberg today had this ominous article: More than 150 publicly traded U.S. lenders own nonperforming loans that equal 5 percent or more of their holdings, a level that former regulators say can wipe out a bankÂ’s equity and threaten its survival. The number of banks exceeding the threshold more than doubled in the year through June, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, as real estate and credit-card defaults surged...Excluding the stress-test list, banks with nonperformers above 5 percent had combined deposits of $193 billion, according to Bloomberg data. ThatÂ’s almost 15 times the size of the FDICÂ’s deposit insurance fund at the end of the first quarter.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2009-08-14 20:49  

#12  When the new edition of Joy of Cooking came out some years ago, I bought it but kept my old copy too. I've been glad I did many times. (And not just for the muskrat, either.)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2009-08-14 18:18  

#11  I am learning recipes for radish greens and dandelions, and learning to tell edible plants from such delights as water hemlock. Should you need a good resource for meat, dig up a 1975 copy of The Joy of Cooking, which has a lot of the 1931 recipes for squirrel, wild rabbit, and muskrat.

I'm only half facetious.


Posted by: mom, who needs a cold beer    2009-08-14 17:44  

#10  Optimist.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2009-08-14 17:01  

#9  we are about June 1930 on the Great Depression timeline That would make it another 2 years, 9 months until there are runs on the banks & a national bank holiday. if history repeats itself, which I hope won't happen.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2009-08-14 16:06  

#8  To follow on AH9418s comment. To a large extent economic activity is driven by 'sentiment'. Which means perceptions of what will happen in the future. If you think you will keep your job, you will buy a new car. If a company thinks demand for its products will increase, it will invest in new plant.

What governments are doing is talking up sentiment.

Otherwise, as I said the other day, we are about June 1930 on the Great Depression timeline.
Posted by: Phil_B   2009-08-14 14:47  

#7  Experts saw this crisis coming long ago. The WSJ had written editorials about it for years. People like Nouriel Roubini & J. K. Galbraith Jr did see it coming, but they & their like were considered the lunatic fringe and were not taken seriously. The "experts" like Allan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, & Tim Geithner were out to lunch, so to speak, on the crisis. 28 March 2007: "the impact on the broader economy and financial markets of the problems in the subprime markets seems likely to be contained," Bernanke said in prepared testimony to Congress' Joint Economic Committee. Whatever the WSJ had to say prior to the blowup was like the Delphic oracle, so vague as to be misleading.
I'm no expert, & in fact lost a chunk of my retirement funds in the dot com crash of 2000. But I learned from that. By August 2007 it was obvious to me we were in big trouble, and I sold any investment I had related to housing & the stock market, & went into treasuries & CD's. The more obvious crisis in 9/2008 awoke some of the sleepers.
Then there's the MSM bias towards cheerleading. Any development for the worse is 'unexpected,' and any day's increase in the Dow means the recession is over. It ain't over by a long shot.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2009-08-14 14:29  

#6  It just reminds me of what an old finance professor told me when I was an arrogant young college puke: If you are an economist, you can be wrong your entire career and still get a Nobel Prize.
Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie   2009-08-14 13:53  

#5  Barry urged the Euros to provide "bailouts" at the recent G summits. Appears they wisely refused to follow his feckless lead and are their economies are now showing strong signs of recovery.
Posted by: Besoeker   2009-08-14 09:09  

#4  Experts saw this crisis coming long ago. The WSJ had written editorials about it for years. But no one knew when it would come. So the question should be why it occurred on the 15th of September in an election year. A coincidence? I'm not sure but I am sure I won't live long enough to learn the truth. But it seems to me it shouldn't surprise anyone when things like this happen after you give 10% of your GDP to your biggest enemy in cash.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2009-08-14 07:31  

#3  He's certainly "unifying" non-union, caucasian, working people and retirees over the age of 50.
Posted by: Besoeker   2009-08-14 07:17  

#2  Bank moves against commercial estate firms, have been delayed in deference to recovery efforts. The failure puts these interests in foreclosure gunsights. The current market for commercial property is worse than that for real estate. Homes are being bought "low" for speculative purpose alone; the big property market follows the growth or decline in private mortgages. Confidence in growth is fading. And, in that context, BHO has chosen to alienate health care providers. So much for being the great unifier.
Posted by: Unitle Borgia4836   2009-08-14 04:35  

#1  "Unexpected" by the same "experts" who didn't see the crisis coming until it was too late.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2009-08-14 01:51  

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