XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: obama@hittheroadjack.com   
      
   Right after Obama's stock market pukes waved their S&P rah-rah   
   flags, reality and the truth took a big shit on their dinner   
   plates.   
      
   Job growth in August was awful. The increase: just 142,000 jobs.   
      
   It was the worst month this year for jobs and, while I don’t   
   want to be a big downer, there is every indication that next   
   month’s numbers will probably be equally — or more —   
   disappointing.   
      
   Wall Street was expecting an increase of 225,000 jobs in August   
   and for the life of me I can’t figure out why it was expecting   
   such a rosy number. Was it just because the first seven months   
   of the year produced job gains in excess of 200,000?   
      
   At the same time, the unemployment rate dipped to 6.1 percent,   
   from 6.2 percent, — but that is only because fewer people were   
   looking for work.   
      
   Do these experts not see what is happening at ground level — in   
   retail stores, with wages — in the US economy?   
      
   I’ve earned a living fighting stupid comments by people on Wall   
   Street, CNBC and elsewhere who don’t understand the statistical   
   noise that goes into the jobs reports.   
      
   Two things likely happened after the Labor Dept. on Friday   
   morning announced miserable growth for last month: First, all   
   the “experts” probably needed a change of underwear and, second,   
   everyone went into denial. That’s what you have to do when you   
   look stupid and your job is at stake.   
      
   “I don’t believe it.” “This is anomalous.” “There’s going to be   
   an upward revision.” Those are quotes that CNBC got from what it   
   described as “three top economists.”   
      
   Wall Street should hire better economists.   
      
   I’ve been telling you for months that the job market would show   
   an increase in the springtime and then dip in the summer.   
      
   I am not clairvoyant. But I do understand some of the problems   
   Labor is having with the quality of its statistics.   
      
   And I said months ago that this pattern, which was the same last   
   year and the year before and the year before that, would cause   
   the Federal Reserve to second-guess any of the monetary   
   tightening that it was planning.   
      
   Last year’s summer swoon caused the Fed, then headed by Ben   
   Bernanke, to delay his pullback of the disastrous quantitative   
   easing program by a couple of months. The pullback in the job   
   market we are now seeing will certainly stop speculation about a   
   quick rise in interest rates.   
      
   And all of this is happening because even the Fed’s “experts”   
   can’t hear the statistical noise over Wall Street’s cheering   
   whenever what looks like a good economic report comes out.   
      
   The dumbest recent Fed statement came out of the St. Louis   
   Federal Reserve Bank last week. The St. Louis Fed made the   
   argument that Americans were inexplicably showing a “willingness   
   to hoard money” and this was hurting the economy.   
      
   Hoarding money! Do you know anyone who is doing this? Have you   
   ever heard anything so stupid from people who were presumably   
   sober when they wrote the report?   
      
   The puzzle Fed officials face is this: If the economy really was   
   producing the number of new jobs reported in spring, people   
   should be spending more. But people aren’t spending, as just   
   about any retailer will tell you.   
      
   So what’s the logical explanation for this disconnect?   
      
   Of course, people simply aren’t earning the amount of money the   
   government thinks they are because the number of jobs being   
   created by the economy is being overstated.   
      
   That’s what Friday’s jobs report proves.   
      
   Labor admits to nothing. It hasn’t yet conceded that some of its   
   data have been falsified, or that its seasonal adjustments are   
   screwy or — most important — that the assumptions it makes about   
   newly formed companies are erroneous.   
      
   http://nypost.com/2014/09/06/the-pitiful-job-growth-of-august/   
      
       
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)