Nothing To See Here, Move Along

With admiration definitely not unbounded, I watch the economic news writers' pure gloss of what is actually dismal. Unemployment even at the levels of our present work scene, consisting of mainly service sector jobs, fell in August. This is not back-to-school time, when lots of jobs normally end - the sort of lowpaying jobs that teens take when they're out of school. Nevertheless, our economics media wants to tell the reader, mainly their employer readers, that this is just peachy.

The number of newly laid off people signing up for jobless benefits rose last week, suggesting that employment conditions, while softening a tad, still remain good.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that new applications filed for unemployment insurance increased by a seasonally adjusted 7,000 to 316,000 for the week ending Aug. 4. The increase left claims at their highest point since late June.

Economists were predicting claims would be lower, around 310,000 for last week.

Still, claims are lower now than they were a year ago, when they stood at 319,000.
(snip)
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his central bank colleagues ...predicted that the economy would expand at a moderate pace in the months ahead "supported by solid growth in employment and incomes."(Emphasis added)

The surge is on! The surge in fabricated facts - solid growth is counterindicated. And the surge that really is on is the surge in sacking workers as sales weaken, housing market jobs like sales and construction disappear, and lenders go belly up. In other words, the "remain good" and "expand" applied to the economy, statements are totally false.

Stocks plunged as fresh credit fears overwhelmed investors. The Dow Jones industrial tumbled narly 172 points in morning trading.

On the labor market front, other recent barometers suggest some cooling in hiring, partly reflecting the toll of the sour housing market and struggles in the auto industry.

Pretty, isn't it? Sadly, there will always be propagandists whose livelihood depends on telling it like it isn't. I'm sure Ms. Aversa's job would be gone tomorrow if she actually wrote "Disaster Hits in Stock Market, Housing, Lending, Auto Industry, and Jobs". But from the reverberations around my office, the 'collapse of the credit industry' is hurting those scions of industry the cretin in chief was mighty dedicated to putting into financial bliss.

Could it be that a lack of purchasing power means lowered sales? and lower sales means diminishing profits? and farming out manufacturing to China means recalls? and recalls means big losses? Reality doesn't sound so good to investor/owners' ears. Those who fail to heed it though, include so far the economics stenographers and the really unanalytical readers they may still have at, say, the Wall Street Journal.

Things are not good, and 'softening a tad' is cute, but false.