Thursday, February 25, 2010

A band of merry suckers.

You have got to love wall street riding in on a white horse every week when unemployment numbers are released. Don't you? It's almost like they are saying - your jobs don't matter. We are going to be fine. But, you will all be penny less.

I mean it feels great when the market is up. (not today - but I wouldn't be surprised if there were a full reversal) Except for being on constant edge that the floor will drop out. You know it's coming right? There is nothing that suggests such exuberance is warranted. But, whatever.

"Rising jobless claims and weaker orders suggest the economy is retrenching in the first half of the first quarter. There's no reason to think this is the start of a double dip, some back-and-fill is standard operating procedure in recoveries," said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial in New York."

They are blaming the increase on unemployment on weather. Which I always love. A temporary thing you know. It is like they think that somehow within the next couple of months all these states with budget deficits are going to magically be healed and all those state workers aren't going to be laid off. It is magic you know. I must be imagining all those thousands of teacher layoff notices. 100 here, 300 there. 900 in San Fransisco.

San Jose keeps demanding that Nummi stay open. A company in my burb has already closed because they were a supplier to them. There should be an "unexpected" jump in the rolls in about a month. Maybe they can blame that on weather too.

Still - good job wall street! It's always nice to make sure the public is completely caught off guard when you decide to exit the market when you can't pretend that things aren't just cheesy anymore.

2 comments:

  1. I guess that I would feel more sympathetic about the teacher layoffs, except already the SF school district gets over $800 million a year in taxes. This is for less than 100,000 students. On a per student basis, it would be cheaper to send all of those kids a public college than it would be to send them to elementary and high school. If San Francisco can't educate the kids on that kind of a budget, then the whole program should be shut down. The fact that they are losing over a $100 million a year says something about the inefficiencies within their system.

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  2. I agree. I'm not sure sympathetic is the right word to describe my agitation. In most respects I wish they would just rip the band-aid off and get it over. We haven't had a recession in a while that has shrunk government. And, that is needed. Yet them continuing to suck money from productive sources just to put off the inevitable is annoying. What, they think 5 quarters of falling revenue is just going to reverse and save them?

    There is just no reason for the market to have such buying strength today. It is slightly irritating. I'm just annoyed that the market doesn't reflect the rather severe problems ahead.

    It can't just be me. I've noticed everyone making jokes how all the numbers are "unexpected". Bleh. I'll get over it. It is like your brain is having a constant fight. One half says hey - everything is fine, and the other side says - Oh shit.

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