Thursday, March 17, 2016

Streak of Low Jobless Claims Longest in More Than Four Decades



The idea that we are now somehow in the bust phase of the boom-bust Fed-manipulated business cycle and that the Fed will have to soon reverse its December rate hike is absurd.

An historically small number of Americans have sought new unemployment benefits each week for more than a year.

Initial claims for jobless benefits, a proxy for layoffs in the U.S. came in at 265,000 last week, according to the Labor Department.

The level remained below 300,000 for the 54th straight week. That is the longest such streak since 1973.

Notes WSJ: To put the streak in perspective, claims have been at 300,000 or more 80% of the weeks since 1967. Claims were at or above that mark for seven straight years between May 2007 and May 2014.

  -RW

5 comments:

  1. apparently the the fed does not share your confidence or they would be raising rates ...

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    Replies
    1. True, the Fed is even more clueless than Austrian-lites.

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    2. Even more clueless are those that claim ABCT has everything to do with M2 money stock. Get a clue dude...

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  2. If the Fed is not forced by the market to reverse the rate hike this year, and the stock market goes on to make new highs, we could be entering a very inflationary phase, leading to a Misesian crack-up-boom if the Fed is not on top of things.

    Some recessions are inflationary (Weimar). When much of the country is living off the public dole (welfare, SNAP, WIC, disability, Social Security, all government employees, all government contract employees, not to mention the many businesses subsidized by the government) unemployment can become quite low. The people included in the parenthesis above make up tens of millions of Americans. This is not your father's economy. This is a house of cards being propped up by easy money. But the easy money may actually end up setting this house of cards on fire.

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  3. Here in Seattle, the boom is in full effect.

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