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Initial Jobless Claims Miss For 4th Week In Row
After last week's jerk higher (now revised even higher to 314k), this week saw a modest 17k drop to 297k (magically back below the 300k Maginot Line) but still missed expectations. Obviously, initial claims still linger near 14 year lows but the smoother 4 week average rose around 5k to 299k. Continuing claims rose 39k and has hovered at these decade-long lows for 6 weeks now - though unadjusted Regular State (ex) employees claiming UI benefits jumped 125K from 2.065 million to 2.190 million.. It appears the trend of improvement has ended/stabilized.
Charts: Bloomberg
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We acted stupidly and unemployed some folks who don't get to keep their doctors.
We screwed up......we trusted them......never do that.
Gin up some riots.....it's the only way out now.
lets see QE "ends" and all econ reports suck now.....QE4 jawboning in 3...2...1 so predictable
corporations furiously trying to make 2014 bonus
We are coming face to face with a harsh reality. The long term implications of poor job creation are massive. We are seeing that a huge number of people have dropped out of the work force and others locked in low paying jobs. Often these people have little in the way of savings, this means the burden of caring for them will be transferred to society. If to many people shift into this category we will slowly wear down through attrition.
Finding a fair way to share and balance the work load that goes on every day is one of the most important problems facing our modern world. Failure to discover a solution to this dilemma bodes poorly for our consumer driven economy and adds to the toxic problem of inequality. Many of the numbers and budget projections of the government have been based on far better employment numbers then we are currently facing or will be facing if this continues. The article below looks at the long-term implication of poor job creation and how it will drastically impact in a negative way both the wealth and future of America.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2013/09/implications-of-poor-job-creation.html
When Rome was tanking, the political and economic shenanigans were so pervasive that it dominated the political scene. Concern over starving masses? Concern for the sick? If word even got back to the government in Rome, they were too pre-occupied to care. All they wanted was MONEY.
The Roman PTB assigned mid-level bureaucrats in all corners of the empire. How effective were their reporting systems? How accountable was the regional/local government? I suspect status of peripheral regions wasn't very closely monitored and was succeptible to all sorts of manipulation. No way is a government employee going to be at risk! The Roman PTB gave quotas to these bureaucrats for tax collection. The bureaucrats hired mercenaries to carry out the collections. The mercenaries were often ruthless and would rape and pillage. Didn't matter--so long as they made quota. Many of the mercenaries were Roman soldiers that stopped getting pension payments so they pursued money in other ways. They often did pretty well; it's how knights go their start.
I think the small gold and silver caches that are often found around Europe were placed by the ZHer's of their day. A small handful of silver coins could represent a lifetime's wealth of the family. Seems like these families succeeded at one thing at least--keeping their PMs out of Roman hands.
Many people had nothing; starving, naked bands of stragglers would travel from place to place to forage, rummage and beg. They would beg to be taken slaves in exchange for food. I'll bet these people did have something, though--they probably knew basic farm labor skills. What skills do 'those with nothing' have today? I doubt the labor of most people will be very valuable for the first few months, or maybe even years, after TSHTF.
There is an important point here--the government was panicking for record quantities of money, all while it was receding. I'm sure if you asked a politican how the economy was doing they might point to all the public works projects and believe it's soaring. Reality was the empire was receding and productive people were bugging out.
Sort of sounds like Ferguson. The government wants to meticulously control the messaging, optics, communications, perspectives, and sentiments in some crazy belief that they can manipulate behaviors, only to have everything blow up in their faces--so they recede and promise to throw money at the mess. Even saying that voluneers were not permitted to help protect the properties of others--the government WANTED properties exposed and damaged so they can say "see what happens when you don't do what we say?".
Has the culture already reverted to a medieval mindset and we're living on the vapors of 200 years of subsidized industrial production? Is government the new church? Will any criticism of it be blastphemy punishable by imprisionment of death? It already has been going on. Purges for some sorry souls--IRS audits, NSA parallel reconstruction methods using illegally-obtained surveillance data, illegal confiscations of property, etc. But from a Roman perspective it's collateral damage. Maybe "revolt" won't be a head-on confrontation with TPTB, but instead they'll recede behind moats and walls around the country (last week a moat was suggested for the WH; it wouldn't be tough to put one around all of DC by tying the Anacostia and Potomac rivers with a wide canal.
Defenses of TPTB might become their prisons. As their food runs out, they'll see chiminey smoke on the horizon and wonder if it's help. It won't be help; it'll be us--industrious, creative people being intelligent and productive--rebuilding the economy from the ground up without them. Will TPTB perish? Will we succeed? Will they have the influence to manipulate their way back to power?
The economy is so strong folks don't need jobs.
People don't want jobs they just need money.
"People don't need jobs, they just want free money."
There. Fixed it for you.
Yes and shopping is down because things are so good they don't feel the need to run out to get deals. My god these propagandists know no bounds.
The government has magnamiously retired many workers with ebt and other doles. Wonder what the unemployment rate would be if one just counted able body people not in the workforce?
Basically that's the labor participation rate and it's horrific. http://www.businessinsider.com/labor-force-participation-rate-september-...
the job market has SUCKED since late 1990's !
the job market has completely sucked for the last 8 years !
illegal aliens can't even get jobs!!!!!!!