Political Economy category archive

Bloomberg: Unemployments holds stead at 370k. Still treading water.

Estimates ranged from 360,000 to 375,000. The Labor Department revised the previous week’s figure up to 370,000, from an initially reported 367,000.

The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure than the weekly figures, fell to 375,000 last week from 379,750.

(snip)

The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits rose by 18,000 in the week ended May 5 to 3.27 million.

The continuing claims figure does not include the number of Americans receiving extended benefits under federal programs.

Via Bob Cesca.

Uh oh.

In previous months, increases in the sales volume could be attributed in part to distressed sales, which have played a major role in Hampton Roads in recent years. Last month, however, foreclosures and sales by home-owners whose homes were worth less than their mortgage balances – known as short sales – accounted for 31 percent of all sales, which is down from a 35 percent share a year earlier.

Locally, foreclosures and short sales as a portion of all sales reached a high of 42 percent in May 2011.

Still stalled:

Jobless claims dropped by 1,000 to 367,000 in the period ended May 5, in line with the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey and the lowest since the end of March, the Labor Department said today in Washington. The number of people on unemployment benefit rolls was the smallest since July 2008.

(snip)

The Labor Department said the four-week moving average of claims, a less-volatile measure than the weekly figures, decreased to 379,000 last week from 384,250 the previous period.

The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits dropped to 3.23 million in the week ended April 28 from 3.29 million. The continuing claims figure does not include the number of Americans receiving extended benefits under federal programs.

Via Contradict Me.

A little better.

Jobless claims fell by 27,000 to 365,000 in the week ended April 28, a one-month low, from a revised 392,000 the prior period, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 46 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for 379,000 applications.

(snip)

The four-week moving average, a less-volatile measure than the weekly figures, climbed to 383,500 last week from 382,750.

The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits fell to 3.28 million in the week ended April 21 from 3.33 million.

Via BartBlog.

Via BartCop.

Once again, no change for all practical purposes. Also, they still need new “experts” to make their predictions (follow the link for the expertitude).

Jobless claims fell by 1,000 to 388,000 in the week ended April 21 from a revised 389,000 the prior period that was the highest since early January, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 48 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for a drop to 375,000.

(snip)

The four-week moving average, a less-volatile measure than the weekly figures, climbed to 381,750 last week, the highest since Jan. 7, from 375,500.

The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits rose to 3.32 million in the week ended April 14 from 3.31 million.

The continuing claims figure does not include the number of Americans receiving extended benefits under federal programs.

I wish I could get a gig as one of their “experts.” Expertise seemingly is not a qualification.

Frankly, I find that industrial wind turbines have a sort of industrial grace to them.

The Donald doesn’t.

The New York real-estate entrepreneur will tomorrow tell lawmakers at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh about his opposition to a proposed 230 million-pound ($371 million) experimental offshore wind farm in sight of the golf course he is opening in July. Trump’s warnings about the effect of the wind energy industry on tourism aren’t borne out by the facts, according to the government.

“I am very disappointed with him, these wind turbines will destroy Scotland,” Trump said in a telephone interview on April 19. “Other countries are stopping building them. Alex is 20 years behind the curve.”

Aside:

The Donald’s claim that countries are abandoning wind energy is a self-serving lie.

This is not a surprise.

Bankster magic continues to cast its spell:

House prices have dropped by over a third from their peak as the bubble burst. High levels of distressed properties on the market have hampered the market, as has the high unemployment rate and tough credit conditions, which have offset the benefit of mortgage rates near or at record lows.

And Mitt the Flip wants to do it all over again. Paul Krugman explains (follow the link for the rest):

. . . since Mr. Romney is essentially advocating a return to those very same Bush policies. And he’s hoping that you don’t remember how badly those policies worked.

There’s a big black headline in my local rag implying the doom of social security (the link does not appear to be on their website yet).

Rather than duplicate efforts, I’ll just let Atrios explain it.

For all practical purpose, no trend here:

Jobless claims fell by 2,000 to 386,000 in the week ended April 14 from a revised 388,000 the prior period that was higher than initially estimated, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 47 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for a drop to 370,000. Revisions to previous data have been larger than normal and the government is trying to determine the cause, a Labor Department spokesman said as the figures were released to the press.

(snip)

The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure than the weekly figures, rose to 374,750 last week from 369,250.

The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits rose by 26,000 in the week ended April 7 to 3.3 million.

The continuing claims figure does not include the number of Americans receiving extended benefits under federal programs.

Celebrate Returns Day by comparing your tax rate with Mitt the Flip’s.

Priorities:

A new survey from Visa Inc. shows that the average American family with teenagers plans to spend $1,078 — that’s for each child — on the prom, a 33.6 percent increase over the $807 spent last year.

And those in the lower income brackets, less than $50,000, plan to spend even more — $1,307 per child, the survey found. And those in the very lowest bracket, under $20,000, plan to spend $1,200 — more than 6 percent of their annual income.

But the most staggering number came from those families earning between $20,000 and $30,000, who plan to spend an average of $2,635, which would represent almost 9 percent of annual income for those making $30,000. Those families are just above the federal poverty level, which is $23,050 for a family of four.

Actually, I can understand the inverse relationship between income and prom spending.

The poorer families are likely reasoning, “We can’t give them much, but at least we can give them this.”

It may not make financial sense, but it makes emotional sense.

Mike Papantonio takes on the myth that the President–any President–can significantly influence the price of gas at the pump:

Bump.

Jobless claims increased 13,000 in the week ended April 7 to 380,000, the highest since Jan. 28, the Labor Department reported today in Washington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey called for 355,000 claims. The number of people on unemployment benefit rolls and those receiving extended payments declined.

(snip)

The total number of people receiving jobless benefits fell by 98,000 in the week ended March 31 to 3.25 million.

In addition to the jobless claims, the number of Americans receiving extended benefits under federal programs decreased by about 34,000 to 3.22 million in the week ended March 24.

The unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits, which tends to track the jobless rate, held at 2.6 percent, today’s report showed.

But what if you subsequently let it fall apart? Bloomberg considers America’s fascination with building new while ignoring old:

A challenge generally is that states and localities, unlike the federal government, make a firm distinction between operating and capital expenditures. You can borrow money to build a road, but not to maintain it. This leads to a subtle — make that not so subtle — bias against maintenance spending.

“See those lights,” a transit manager in a major American city told me during a tour of an open-air train station, pointing to some bulbs in rusting metal frames hanging over the platform. “It would only cost about $1,000 a year to maintain those well. We can’t get that. So instead, we will wait until they rust out and fail completely. Then we will replace them, at a cost of perhaps $100,000.”

Giving money to developers and contractors: Good, because they are “free enterprise.”

Paying persons to maintain what you get for that money: Bad, because they are “government drones” (but not the kind of drones which kill people; those are good).

Headline at Bloomberg:

Payless Shoes Seen Accepting Lowest Apparel Valuation

What goes around . . . .