The figure for first-time jobless claims — unemployment insurance claims — jumped to 360,000 last week.
Anything above 350,000 is considered poor job growth.
The figure had been below 330,000 the week before. The trend had been down. There were lots of stories on “happy days are here again.”
Then, without warning, the figure wiped out all the decline.
This indicates that it’s still the same old story: a poor job market.
It is a volatile figure. But when it goes above 350,000, it’s bad news. The bad news was supposed to be over. It isn’t.
Keynesianism says that federal deficits always overcome recessions. But unemployment has remained high, despite trillion-dollar annual federal deficits since 2009. The old Keynesian magic isn’t working.
The Federal Reserve pumps in $90 billion a month in fiat money. That is not working, either.
There is no political resistance to these twin deficits. The public does not know. The economists remain mute. The politicians keep spending.
In the next recession, we will get more of the same, but from a much worse starting point.
Dishonest Money: sooner or later, it invariably fails whenever and wherever it’s tried.
Well at least happy days are here again for anti-Obama Conservatives!