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The Discouragement of the American Worker

According to Nomura Global Economics, there has been a rather dramatic divergence between the "real" and "official" unemployment rate in the United States since 2009. FT/Alphaville's Cardiff Garcia explains (HT: Tyler Cowen): A chart via Nomura to keep in the... (read more)
 

Highlights from Today's Employment Report

Some highlights of today's employment report:1. Temporary employment reached a 3.5-year high in January of 2.4 million jobs, the highest level since May 2008 (see chart).2. Manufacturing overtime hours, at 4.3 hours in January, were at the highest level since... (read more)
 

Nonfarm Payroll +243,000 ; Unemployment Rate 8.3%; Those Not in Labor Force Rose an Amazing 1,177,000

Quick Notes About the "Falling" Unemployment Rate In the last year, the civilian population rose by 3,565,000. Yet the labor force only rose by 1,145,000. Those not in the labor force rose by 2,420,000.   In January, the Civilian Labor Force rose by 508,000.... (read more)
 

Deutsche Bank Profit Falls on European Debt Crisis

Deutsche Bank said on Thursday that net profit plunged in the fourth quarter after the European sovereign debt crisis led to a decline in revenue in its investment banking division.... (read more)
 

Tracking the recovery: pessimism still pervasive

For the past three years this blog has been steadfastly of the belief that while the economy was likely to improve, the recovery would be sub-par because of too much fiscal stimulus and too much uncertainty surrounding monetary policy. At the same time, I have... (read more)
 

ISM Manufacturing Report on Business: January 2012

Today, the Institute for Supply Management released their latest Report on Business for the manufacturing sector indicating that manufacturing activity improved in January with assessments of most measures increasing.At 54.1 the purchasing managers composite... (read more)
 

Number of the Week: Super Bowl Ads Cost 3 Cents Per Viewer

$0.03: The average cost per viewer for thirty second of ad time during the Super Bowl.superZUMAPRESS.comThe average advertiser during the Super Bowl will pay about $3.5 million for one thirty second commercial, that works out to about three cents per viewer.... (read more)
 

Goldman Gives Blankfein $7 Million Stock Award

With a $2 million base salary, the 2011 pay package for Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, so far totals $9 million. Goldman has not yet disclosed the size of his cash bonus... (read more)
 

Tax Expenditures Have a Major Impact on the Federal Budget

Do you receive a tax deduction for the interest paid on your mortgage or for the taxes you pay to your state and local governments? Would you think about those deductions in the same way if instead of seeing a reduction in taxes for those items the federal... (read more)
 

IPOs: From Netscape To Facebook

In case you were unaware, IPOs are terrible investments — at least most of the time. The lottery ticket dreams keeps hope alive that this next one is going to be a giant winner.Hopes are pinned on the giant Facebook IPO, coming out at an expected 100... (read more)
 

Quelle Surprise! SEC Fails to Sanction Big Banks for Fraud

Ed Wyatt of the New York Times has released an important story tonight on how the SEC goes easy on big banks by giving them exemptions to laws meant to stop securities fraud. This report stands in stark contrast to a Reuters story which repeats the favorite... (read more)
 

Secondary Sources: Austerity, Freddie Bets Against Homeowners, Fed

A roundup of economic news from around the Web.–Austerity: Carlo Cottarelli of the IMF worries that necessary fiscal adjustment may be going too fast. “The IMF has argued for some time that the very high public debt ratios in many advanced economies... (read more)