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Brighter Outlook on Jobs?

In a week of little news about the state of the economy, today’s weekly report on new claims for unemployment assistance comes as a nice treat: jobless claims fell 30,000 to 339,000 the lowest level since February 2008. Coming as it does on the back of last week’s improved unemployment numbers we begin to talk […]

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Unemployment Rate Drops

Just a quick note on this morning’s jobs report: the US unemployment rate dropped below 8%, it was 7.8% for September, down from August’s 8.1%, and the lowest we have seen since January 2009. The economy added 114,000 new jobs during the month, a rate, which as I have said many times, not sufficient to […]

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Economics Should Fail Better

Let’s have fun. Let’s pitch Beckett against Nietzsche. First the philosopher: “The mitigation of our customs is the consequence of our weakness”. Now the playwright: “Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” Nietzsche seems to be arguing that it is a sign of weakness to modify, water down, or otherwise tamper with tradition. He makes no […]

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