Are you saying that we turned the corner and jobs don't show it yet?

much like the Silent Spring of two years ago in used home sales I suspect there will be very little seasonal hiring this spring.

Bloomie is repotng Legg-Mason just got rid of their SIV assets for .25/1. No specifics on what classes of securities, portfolio composition, etc, yet.

Why did Productivity decline?

Guest ... Today, 8:58:45 AM
“Why did Productivity decline?"

Business sector productivity is defined as output per hour. Does not include government. So not exactly comparable to GDP number (which includes government) where output was down 6.2% in Q4. Business sector output down 8.4%, hours worked down 8.0%, so output per hour down 0.4%. Businesses are keeping payrolls in line with falling demand quite accurately.

CR - misleading headline; slight decrease "on previous monthly claims", ie still ghastly, but the headline implies slight decrease on aggregate employment numbers.

Agree, with Nemo, by the time companies / publics come to laying off workers, a 12-step program of disaster analysis has already happened.

Bit like the Dryships numbers.

This will not end soon, simply, or nicely.

Check the bond announcements today for forward projections. I smell blood.

C

So the bottom is in?

So the bottom is in?

The behavior of the markets the past few days and the futures so far this morning seems to me to support recent arguments that there's a short side momentum trade going on.

Bad enough that GM is getting a going concern label, but the auditors identified (a) material weakness in their accounting systems according to reports I have been reading. That ain't good.

GE to do a "deep dive" into the GE Capital division at a meeting on March 16. You'd think they could have come up with a better slogan. Those few who watch CNBC will be subjected to an endless loop of clips from the half hour interview this morning with their CFO. And now we know why GE hangs on to CNBC - perhaps they should get Billy Mays as a pitchman or better still use one of those Zorbeez sponges that can soak up toxic assets.

Billy Mays Top Ten Commercials As Seen on TV | As Seen On TV Video

You mean, unintended consequences.

How about refunding swap fees and just letting stuff fail?

Byz - oh, I hear ya. This ad hockery and failure to precisely identify the problem has led to a systemic failure of solution sets.

I weep for my... actually I weep for my hyper-pumped credit driven lifestyle, economy, future and civilization.

C

PS good morning Mary-nam.

Who's buyin' the dips ?

cr any way to cross correlate cont. claims to the jobless numbers - realize its a netting issue, but initials for example in Feb 2.5M, but nonfarms bid at 630K or so? lags etc. but hard to make sense of how nanfarms correlates to this number --

Dawg - you're right in the sense that settlement is in two weeks, but there are going to be signals from today on.

C

The real question is what will the unemployment rate be tomorrow. I am betting 8%. A friend is betting 7.9%. He says that they will fudge the numbers to make it look better than it is.

On a side note, my local paper published tomorrow's national unemployment rate yesterday, unexpectedly. They said: "The U.S. rate was 8.5 percent, while the state’s December figure was 7.6. percent." Obviously they got it backwards. The U.S. rate was 7.6 percent while the state's was 8.5%. Still, it gave me a chuckle.

OK, I bailed out of my GE $7.50 calls. Turned a 12% profit, but the position is just too risky for my taste...

Yogi, yeah I got it the second time. I'll respond shortly.

Pity the poor Limeys. FTSE 100 sucking it at -2.33%

We were shoveling snow.

Unemployment over 10% in many Oregon counties, but no mass panic or starvation-- I think the jobs are going underground, because I see more and more people paying with wads of cash rather than checks or plastic.

Is the short fall in tax revenues from capitol gains loses priced into bond yields? What about tax filing loss deductions, what is it 3K per year per filer? What about the knock on affect in relation to consumer spending due to lower equity wealth? Is this all priced in?

The 1980s hits just keep coming!

Paul Hardcastle, 19:
YouTube - Paul Hardcastle - 19

Byz,
If you are still here. When the long bond turns the danger is that the conveyor belt of short term debt keeps on dumping more debt that needs to roll. There is no flexibility, it is there and on an unstoppable schedule and there is perfect transparency.

<<NY State has not only be slashing SUNY, but they would give us money and then freeze our accounts anyways. So far we have been planning cuts from 5-10% in both short term and long term. We may also be facing our first drop in enrollment in more than a decade which will also have a profound effect on budget allocations.>>

I'm at WWU, and we are getting a ton of enrollment apps, got approval to add more, but now are cutting enough classes to make a 4-yr degree take 5 or 6 years. We still don't know which programs will get what cuts though. I know tuition is going to get hiked to the max, 7% I think. Luckily my dept has more non-staff budget to cut, but I think we'll lost people anyway.

Houston jobless rate hits 6.5 percent, highest since '04 | Chronicle | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle
Houston unemployment rate surges to 6.5 percent
(It was 12.6% this month in 1986 and I was looking for a job...)