Friday, November 05, 2004

Is It the Economy Stupid

So now the economy is booming. This from Reuters:

‘The Labor Department said 337,000 new hires were added to payrolls, twice the number that was forecast and enough to fire up speculation the Federal Reserve might keep an interest-rate rising cycle going longer than thought to keep a damper on inflation.’

And this:

‘Stocks maintained a rally, rising for a third straight day as the Dow Jones industrial average added 72.78 points, or 0.71 percent, to close at 10,387.54. The technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index gained 15.31 points, or 0.76 percent, to finish at 2,038.94.’

And this:

‘Not only was October a strong month for U.S. hiring but the number of jobs created in the two prior months was revised up -- to 139,000 in September instead of 96,000 and to 198,000 in August instead of 128,000.’

Don’t mean to be conspiratorial, but I wonder how this would have been reported a mere 3 days ago. It would probably be something like this:

‘The Labor Dept. Said the 337,000 new jobs sound like a lot, but it is not nearly as many as some experts have predicted. The Federal Reserve will surely be on an interest rate raising binge from now moving forward.’

And this:

‘Stocks maintained a rally today with the Dow at 10,387 and the Nasdaq remaining over 2000. Though these numbers are a positive, they are well below the all time highs for either market.’

And this:

‘The jobs created in September and August have been revised upward. However, these jobs were most all merely service jobs, not jobs that pay a living wage.’