RagingTantrum.com

Is our economy finally beginning to recover?  It depends on who you ask, of course, but the unemployment data we received yesterday is a step in the right direction.  AP reports:

The economy’s most vexing problem, unemployment, is showing the first signs of easing. And Wall Street is celebrating.

Major stock indexes jumped more than 1 percent Friday after the government said the nation’s unemployment rate unexpectedly fell in July for the first time in 15 months and that employers cut fewer jobs. Bond prices fell, driving yields higher as investors left the safety of Treasurys.

The Labor Department report handed investors the best evidence yet that the economy could be climbing out of the recession. Analysts widely consider unemployment the biggest obstacle to a recovery in the economy, which is driven by consumer spending.

The surprise figures injected new life in a monthlong rally and provided validation for traders who have been betting since March that the economy is healing. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 114 points to cap its fourth straight weekly gain. The Dow is at its highest level since early November.

The government said employers shed 247,000 jobs in July, the fewest in a year. Economists had expected 320,000 lost jobs. The unemployment rate dropped to 9.4 percent from 9.5 percent in June, rather than rising to 9.6 percent as forecast.

“It really gave the market the proof that it needed to see,” said Burt White, chief investment officer at LPL Financial in Boston.

While it’s too early to declare the recession over, at least in our opinion, this is good news no matter how you slice it.

Some think so. We tend to believe that personal problems, however regrettable they are, don’t neccesarily mean that an elected leader needs to resign.  However, in this case, Governor Sanford’s performance as CEO of the State seems to be suffering.  You can’t just disappear for five days without informing people where you’re going.  We don’t want to rush to judgement here, but as of right now Sanford doesn’t seem fit for office.

According to Bloomberg, maybe:

The number of Americans receiving claims for unemployment benefits dropped for the first time since January, adding to evidence the job market is starting to thaw.

The number of people collecting unemployment insurance plunged by 148,000 in the week to June 6, the most since November 2001, to 6.69 million, the Labor Department said today in Washington. Initial claims rose by 3,000 to 608,000 in the week ended June 13, in line with forecasts.

The average number of claims over the last four weeks fell to the lowest level in four months, an indication that the U.S. economy is stabilizing after the worst recession in half a century. Even so, companies are likely to be slow to hire new employees, sending unemployment rates higher, analysts said.

We’re obviously not out of the woods yet– but this is good news no matter how you slice it!

In all seriousness, a decline in the job LOSS rate is a good thing, even if it is hard to get excited that we lost half a million jobs in 30 days.

We’re not saying the recession is over or anything– but the stock market has rallied in a BIG way in the last couple of weeks.

The audacity of hope!

Yesterday, President Obama expressed cautious optimism about the state of the economy:

The United States has some more company in the stimulus sweepstakes. Japan has just announced an additional Y15.4 trillion in spending and tax cuts, a move obviously intended to stimulate their struggling economy. WSJ.com: