Stock gains don’t make up for continued sluggishness in economy, job market
The Dow Jones Industrial Average today briefly touched the 14000 mark, before falling slightly. As I write, it’s hovering right around that level, the first time it’s done so since late 2007. The broader S&P 500 is at a five-year high, about 3 percent off its all-time peak in October 2007. The Nasdaq is at a 10-year high, though it’s significantly lower than its tech-bubble peak. In all, though, these major indices finally are back to roughly where they were before the housing crash and Great Recession (as long as we don’t adjust them for inflation, that is).
Yet, earlier today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced the unemployment rate had ticked upward to 7.9 percent even though more people had stopped looking for work than found a job. At January’s rate of job growth (157,000 net jobs created), it would take until at least 2025 to regain pre-recession employment levels. At the rate for all of 2012 (an upwardly revised 181,000), it would take “only” until 2022, a decade and a half after employment peaked.
And yesterday, the Commerce Department said the economy shrank in the fourth quarter of 2012, the first negative quarter since mid-2009. The economy is an estimated 14 percent smaller than it would have been if it had grown since 2008 at the long-term average of 3.1 percent a year. That’s some $2.25 trillion of economic production that never came into existence.
The reason for continued market advances in the face of sluggish economic news might be summarized by this quote from the Wall Street Journal:
“Any not-bad news is helping this market,” said Jonathan Corpina, senior managing partner at Meridian Equity Partners, a New York brokerage. “If we get great news, good news, or okay news, it’s still going to make our screens green.”
“Not-bad” is not exactly indicative of a boom. If this quarter were to repeat last quarter’s performance, the above numbers are where the Obama Recovery would have left us: barely back to zero for investors, still well below it for job-seekers and economic growth.
This is the reality wrought by the primary economic policy of the past four years — trying to jump-start the private sector via government spending and monetary expansion. All the spending and expansion hasn’t translated into robust private-sector growth. Four years later, there’s little reason to believe a boom is just around the corner.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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557 comments Add your comment
josef
February 1st, 2013
9:18 pm
Tulsa
Yep. I liked that one!
HILLBILLY
@ 8:52 AND 8:54
And that just proves it! They’re my cousins in more ways than one! That’s my dad’s side, but they are also relatives on my mom’s side…there were all part of the GTT (Gone to Texas) migration from Mississippi following the Wah-uh and continued a process there that had been going on all the way down from the Tidewater.
I got a funny for ya…when we were living Up North we were talking about ethnicities one night and Unmentionable made the comment that “the French comes in on my Choctaw side and the Irish on my Cherokee side,” The Yankees were, like, “hunh?” The Southerners were, like, okay.
Bruno
February 1st, 2013
9:18 pm
For my two favorite Rebs, HD and josef:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDHpkYI5_FY
td
February 1st, 2013
9:18 pm
Bruno
February 1st, 2013
9:11 pm
I worked at the Big Star in King Springs plaza in the mid 80’s and worked a few days at the one near Pat Mell. Grew up on the west side of South Cobb drive. I remember those trailer parks and we stayed away from them as teenagers. You could get your head cracked real easy if you said the wrong thing.
Thulsa Doom
February 1st, 2013
9:19 pm
md,
Don’t know who but wrote it but there was a pretty good article on the changing economics of concert ticket charges today vs years back.
In a nutshell it used to be that touring was done to promote album sales and that ticket prices and hence profits were modest from the concert events themselves.
Then it all changed with the internet, napster, and downloading single songs. Now its the opposite and the concerts are viewed mostly for their profit potential as opposed to when it used to be mostly about promoting the current album.
You’re not the only one who notices this. I’ve noticed that ticket prices in constant dollars are way inflated over what I used to pay to see concerts as a teenager. Kinda sucks.
josef
February 1st, 2013
9:20 pm
DUSTY
L’chaim!
josef
February 1st, 2013
9:23 pm
BRUNO
Thanks a million…
She’s my sister-in-law Sandra’s first cousin in the Choctaw line! (For real) and my birthday is the 3rd of June. I got to cover the filming of the movie for the paper when it was being made…
Hillbilly D
February 1st, 2013
9:26 pm
Y’all got nothing on me, I saw the Marshall Tucker Band, Jimmy Buffett and the Richie Furay Band for $5.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13JK5kChbRw
Bruno
February 1st, 2013
9:27 pm
I worked at the Big Star in King Springs plaza in the mid 80’s and worked a few days at the one near Pat Mell. Grew up on the west side of South Cobb drive. I remember those trailer parks and we stayed away from them as teenagers. You could get your head cracked real easy if you said the wrong thing.
Big Star–Now that’s a blast from the past. I think they got bought out by A & P in the late 80s. An old roommate of mine and his GF worked at the one in Sandy Springs.
I was always cautious in the trailer parks since I had money, a pizza and a car, a potential jackpot for someone with nothing to lose. I kept an iron bar handy at all times.
Bruno
February 1st, 2013
9:30 pm
She’s my sister-in-law Sandra’s first cousin in the Choctaw line! (For real) and my birthday is the 3rd of June. I got to cover the filming of the movie for the paper when it was being made…
Didn’t take long for josef to start upstaging me…..The only thing worse than an unrepentant Reb is a big-talking, name-droppin’ unrepentant Reb.
josef
February 1st, 2013
9:31 pm
Okay, Janis Joplin $8 and “refreshments” for $13…
JamVet
February 1st, 2013
9:32 pm
Rock shows were cheap back in the day. (T’was the time before greed was a god.)
All those glam bands got their chance thanks to these guys…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-bfcjpZ5vM
Bruno
February 1st, 2013
9:32 pm
Y’all got nothing on me, I saw the Marshall Tucker Band, Jimmy Buffett and the Richie Furay Band for $5.
I saw Marshall Tucker Band for free the last year that Toy was still alive at Piedmont Park. So, I figure I got you beat on the first $1.67.
Thulsa Doom
February 1st, 2013
9:33 pm
Aesop,
Yeah. I know the Hollies aint metal. I like most music but metal is my favorite. I just decided to go mellow tonight with the Hollies till you got me jumping with the 2 Metallicas.
Now as for metal. Here’s some classic metal from side 2 of Paranoid that most metalheads don’t even know about. Now this is dark.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhOJSUErBWM
Hillbilly D
February 1st, 2013
9:34 pm
josef @ 9:18
There’s one great thing in all this for me, by Georgia law, if you are as close kin as 3rd cousin, to anybody involved in a legal case, witness, defendent, plantiff/prosecutor, judge, other jury member, etc, you’re automatically struck from jury duty in that case. You ought to see folks eyes bug out when I explain how I’m kin to people and can’t serve.
And for those of you scoring at home, if you have a set of great-great grandparents in common with somebody, you’re 3rd cousins. (Disclaimer, I’m also my own 4th cousin).
Hillbilly D
February 1st, 2013
9:35 pm
I saw Marshall Tucker Band for free the last year that Toy was still alive at Piedmont Park.
I saw the original line-up, before Tommy got killed. Smoking band they were.
Cutty
February 1st, 2013
9:35 pm
Kyle voted for Newt. I’ll take his views on the economy with a grain of salt.
td
February 1st, 2013
9:36 pm
Bruno
February 1st, 2013
9:27 pm
We have a few of those trailer parks out in Paulding county now. I would not go into them without heavy armament today.
JamVet
February 1st, 2013
9:37 pm
America’s best and seminal raunch and roll band…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCsNwEOZ_YY
Thulsa Doom
February 1st, 2013
9:40 pm
I feel cheated. The first price I remember paying for my Oscar Osbourne ticket back in the day was $16. I call him Oscar because my buddy asked off from his job for that night at Shoneys to go to the concert. A week or 2 later he asked his boss if he could have Friday night off again. His boss looked at him and said “Didn’t I let you off a Friday night or 2 ago to go see Oscar Osbourne?”. Billy looked at him with a straight face and said “NO, I didn’t go see Oscar Osbourne”. Technically Billy was correct. And yeah. His boss let him off that Friday night since he insisted he didn’t swore he didn’t see Oscar Osbourne.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
February 1st, 2013
9:41 pm
Thulsa – Let’s go all Randy Rhoads -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcoweoZ6jpM
td
February 1st, 2013
9:42 pm
Cutty
February 1st, 2013
9:35 pm
Kyle voted for Newt. I’ll take his views on the economy with a grain of salt.
Isn’t that the same Newt that forced Clinton to sign those balanced budgets that produced the roaring economy of the late 90’s? I can see how you would not want to listen to that philosophy.
Bruno
February 1st, 2013
9:42 pm
Jam–Rockin Montrose you put up a while back. He was a force.
And about blogging, Brother J—In the end, no one ever changes their opinions, so it’s more about the fellowship IMO.
josef
February 1st, 2013
9:43 pm
Well, I ain’t got no problem with trailer parks myself…of course, I was raised to not think I was any better than anybody else, just behave myself and act right when in somebody else’s house…
Hillbilly D
February 1st, 2013
9:43 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hiiJSWoFnk
Thulsa Doom
February 1st, 2013
9:46 pm
td and Bruno,
What’s the deal with being scared of trailer parks? I’ve done business in several trailer parks and never felt any fear or felt threatened at all. Seen a few drunks and sloppy dressed characters but never seen anything threatening.
Hillbilly D
February 1st, 2013
9:49 pm
I was raised to not think I was any better than anybody else
I think that’s what most people don’t get. In my world, and I’m guessing yours too, I was raised that I’m better and nobody is better than me. I don’t look down on anybody because of their circumstances and I don’t look up to anybody, either. I try to approach everybody as an equal. I’ve always said that I think that’s one big advantage that rural/small town people have is that we all interact. In the big cities, the top of the heap and the bottom of the heap live in totally different worlds and have little interaction with each other. They don’t even know how to talk to each other.
It’s different out here in the hinterlands. It ain’t perfect but we at least all mix and mingle and every family has its good ones and its bad ones, so we all know we have no room to cast stones.
JamVet
February 1st, 2013
9:49 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_jHY1CXK0I
Thulsa Doom
February 1st, 2013
9:49 pm
Aesop,
A talent that died way before his time. RIP Randy.
Bruno
February 1st, 2013
9:49 pm
Thulsa – Let’s go all Randy Rhoads -
In interviews, Ozzie acts as if those were his favorite years.
Here’s some classic metal from side 2 of Paranoid that most metalheads don’t even know about. Now this is dark.
Ozzie’s eyes do look a little scary in the video.
Hillbilly D
February 1st, 2013
9:51 pm
I’m better and nobody is better than me
That’s supposed to say I’m better than nobody and nobody is better than me. Y’all know I leave words out sometimes. Somebody told me that’s a sign of high intelligence…………so I’m going with that.
josef
February 1st, 2013
9:52 pm
Enjoyed the visit…gotta run…
Bruno
February 1st, 2013
9:52 pm
What’s the deal with being scared of trailer parks? I’ve done business in several trailer parks and never felt any fear or felt threatened at all. Seen a few drunks and sloppy dressed characters but never seen anything threatening.
Not any condemnation of trailer parks per se written into this story. These particular ones were notorious, which is why td immediately knew where I was talking about.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
February 1st, 2013
9:53 pm
He was a master -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwFNh2xaRsU
Hillbilly D
February 1st, 2013
9:54 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWIwJnEKmQg
Thulsa Doom
February 1st, 2013
9:57 pm
“I think that’s one big advantage that rural/small town people have is that we all interact.”
Hillbilly D,
You hit upon a very important point about living in the country. I’m out here in rural Walton county. My house is decent and the house to the right is beautiful, the one across the road decent as well and same with the one to the left. 3 lots down down is a rundown trailer in one direction. In the same direction on the other side is also about the worst looking trailer you’ve ever seen. And I know and speak to the people that live in both trailers as well as 2 of the 3 neighbors in houses. Guy next door is kind of a hermit. And in my block there is a mix of fairly successful people, some retirees, and some folks including 2 families that their kids now in their 20s through their 40s are constantly in and out of jail due to meth issues and just general criminality. In 1/4 square mile I’ve got a mix of the always do well, the do okay, and the never do wells. And the people that do okay or do well have no issue being neighborly or having a conversation with the people not doing so well. Its a strange mix but its also a mix of people that all experience and at least know each other.
td
February 1st, 2013
10:00 pm
Thulsa Doom
February 1st, 2013
9:46 pm
td and Bruno,
What’s the deal with being scared of trailer parks? I’ve done business in several trailer parks and never felt any fear or felt threatened at all. Seen a few drunks and sloppy dressed characters but never seen anything threatening.
Not a problem with most. The ones we were talking about in the day were a little on the hard core side. It is just like when I graduated from college and worked for DFCS in Atlanta. Most apartment complexes were fine to go into but there are some that were real scary.
Bruno
February 1st, 2013
10:00 pm
Well, if you’re going all 80s on me, HD, I’ll have to throw this one back at ya:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKWbMJOIkUk
Thulsa Doom
February 1st, 2013
10:04 pm
Bruno,
The lyrics in “hand of doom” about makes you cringe.
Regarding the trailer parks I’ll take your word and td’s that they were some trouble makers in those ones. I’m just saying that in my experience and all the putdowns that I’ve ever heard of people who live in trailer parks I’ve never known of a trailer park that was a dangerous place to be. A lesser socio-economic status neighborhood does not automatically correlate to violence or criminality. And I know you and td know that but it seems on occasion some of our liberal friends don’t know that when they make constant derogatory references to trailer parks.
JamVet
February 1st, 2013
10:06 pm
LOL at Hilly D!
And a great, deep Badfinger cut.
What a sad statement that this guy is not in that supposed HoF in Cleveland, huh?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4-IZTZkTY8
Thulsa Doom
February 1st, 2013
10:06 pm
“Most apartment complexes were fine to go into but there are some that were real scary.”
Yep. That is very true with apt. complexes. Some are fine and decent places. Others are flat out dangerous.
Hillbilly D
February 1st, 2013
10:07 pm
If you like a tight band
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCHmwi5bMso#t=0m45s
Bruno
February 1st, 2013
10:12 pm
Jam–One of these days, they’ll have to get things right out there. Rush is finally going in this year. The Doobs and YES need to be in pronto. It only burns me because they vote in groups like the Velvet Underground who may be dear to their fans and the artsy critics, but don’t hold a candle to the aforementioned groups.
Bruno
February 1st, 2013
10:14 pm
HD–Boz will be playing in Biloxi in April. If I can get Jam to get past his anti-Mississippi prejudices, it could be a fun trip.
Hillbilly D
February 1st, 2013
10:17 pm
The “Hall of Fame” in Cleveland, is a joke in my opinion. These people are among those not in:
Bad Company
Emerson, Lake and Palmer
The Moody Blues
Yes
The Marshall Tucker Band
Chicago
Stevie Ray Vaughan
and there are others
but Patti Smith is in. It’s ridiculous.
Bruno
February 1st, 2013
10:26 pm
Back at ya, HD, with a song made famous by Boz Scags old running mate, Steve Miller. Here’s the original by Les Dudek:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_Rf3M1J4WI
Hillbilly D
February 1st, 2013
10:28 pm
These guys should be in, too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_gxQt-bhik
JamVet
February 1st, 2013
10:28 pm
Yep, something is definitely not right with that place.
I’m just thankful that at least the one in Cooperstown is a paragon of how it should be done. And no one gets in this year. As a helmeted Arte Johnson used to say……. verrrrrrrrrry interesting.
JamVet
February 1st, 2013
10:33 pm
Another unforgivable omission…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HavIYhoAiUE
Hillbilly D
February 1st, 2013
10:33 pm
I always liked both incarnations of this band but I one of the things I liked about the Michael McDonald era was that Tiran Porter got to showcase his bass chops.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G54lfxiid_w
Hillbilly D
February 1st, 2013
10:37 pm
I think nobody getting into Cooperstown this year was a bit of a statement. I think Biggio goes in, within the next 2-4 years. Next year’s class should be interesting, Maddux, Glavine, and Frank Thomas. In my opinion Jack Morris, Tim Raines and Lee Smith need to be in, too. Looks like Morris is the only one with much of a chance, until they get to the Veterans Committee, and his chance isn’t good.