Friday, March 4, 2016

ZOWIE!

240,000 new jobs.  That was quite the number, far surpassing most predictions.  I admit, I was shocked but the funny thing is the market reaction was muted across the board.  The DOW rose just 60 points or so and the dollar actually fell slightly across the board although that was probably in reaction to the now-full belief that the Fed will not tighten in two weeks.  Funny, one would have surmised just the opposite but I agree with the call.  Unfortunately, the headline was not the real news as wages actually fell during the reporting period.  So if the administration is telling us that all we need to take care of additions to the work force is 125,000 new jobs a month, why aren't wage pressures being felt along with a number like this?  In addition, the unemployment rate remained steady at 4.9% but the participation rate remained steady as well.  No conspiracy theories; things just don't seem to make sense...at least not  to me.  This is becoming really confusing.

The new theory has it that this is a whole, new, paradigm of an economy.  That is what economists says when they don't know whats going on either.  But for the time being people seem to be happy or at least relaxed with the data which is probably not a bad thing...except for the fact that gold has shot up 30% in the past few months along with the dollar and all this good news.  Holy Mega Change, Batman!  That is not supposed to happen.

This is the point at which the blogger is supposed to explain it all to his rapt audience.  Not going to happen.  I'm afraid we are all going to wait this one out to see, as I mentioned yesterday, whether the optimists or the pessimists turn out to be correct.  I'm going to ask Larry for his take on this.  Then again, he just told me to buy everything I can get my hands on in the Philippines.  Maybe Larry has gone nutty too.


                                                          _____________________


The North London Derby tomorrow with all on the line.  Two of us left chasing Leicester City.  White Hart Lane is the center of the universe tomorrow for two hours.  Forget about global markets, unemployment rates and the financial stability of the world.  This is really important.

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