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November had been the weakest jobs report of the year until a meager 199k were announced for December. As shown below, over the last 18 months, only December 2020 was weaker. This was right when the Covid second wave was wreaking havoc and before vaccines became available to the public.
Incentives matter. All of the political grandstanding, media spin and wishful thinking won’t change this basic economic principle. Both Janet Yellen and Joe Biden insisted “enhanced” unemployment benefits weren’t incentivizing people not to work. But as we recently reported, analysis of continuing unemployment claims after a number of red states cut enhanced benefits undermined this […]
Economics 101 – incentives matter. But politicians often seem to forget this. Or simply ignore it. “Generous” unemployment benefits provide the perfect example. With the US government handing out enhanced unemployment checks, we ended up in a bizarre situation with high unemployment even as job openings hit record levels.
We’ve seen a sharp selloff in both gold and silver. Gold was down over $40 an ounce Friday. Meanwhile, the US dollar saw a sharp increase, along with a rise in long-term Treasury yields. The catalyst for these sharp moves was a better-than-expected jobs report and expectation that it will spark a quick pivot to […]
The BLS provides an employment picture of the US on the first Friday of every month. It estimates how many jobs were added or subtracted by sector. While some of the assumptions may be controversial (e.g. the birth/death model) and job numbers are prone to revisions, it remains the most widely anticipated statistic each month by […]
This week, the IMF undercut the Fed’s “transitory” inflation narrative, warning about the possibility of sustained inflation in the US. But the real question remains unanswered – what will the Fed do about it? In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey talks about the options on the table. None of […]
Despite the addition of a better than expected 850,000 jobs in June, the unemployment rate ticked up to 5.9%, The anticipation was that it would drop to 5.6%. The media spun this as a fantastic jobs report, focusing on the headline number of jobs “created.” Peter Schiff talked about it in his podcast and said […]
The labor market is a mess. Millions of people are collecting unemployment. Meanwhile, businesses across the country are having a hard time filling positions. In what kind of world does this make sense?
CPI came in much hotter than expected. Fed Vice Chairman Richard Clarida actually said, “We were surprised by higher than expected inflation data.” But should we really be surprised by this? In this episode, Friday Gold Wrap host Mike Maharrey talks about inflation and suggests maybe you shouldn’t be shocked. He also discusses the whacked-out […]
America’s labor market is a mess and riddled with incongruency. On the one hand, businesses can’t find workers. Help wanted signs hang in windows across the country. A McDonald’s franchisee in Tampa is offering bonuses just for showing up for an interview. Meanwhile, unemployment just ticked up to 6.1%. In what kind of world does […]
