Insomnia leads to crazy habits. I've developed the practice of waking up to CNBC. I like to watch the price of energy rise. Today we were greeted with the monthly jobs report and lo and behold we got some positive news. Best of all this was post election good news so these guys were confident of these numbers. Strange, were they implying that pre election numbers were false? Manipulated for political gain? Hmmm ...
CNBC took us down to the trading pits where the scene was pandemonium. The reporter stood on a desk in a crowd of besmocked, finger waving, madmen and delivered a fevered diatribe on the strength of the market...
Soon after the crew of the early show broke the figures down for us with the help of an expert...
The economy added jobs, but, mostly in construction which is to be expected after these hurricanes, the service sector, but half were temp jobs,( hard to figure that rebuilding from hurricanes is a permanent job either, but, I'll let them slide )healthcare and some in financials. Manufacturing jobs were still down.
It is my understanding that jobs, like manufacturing jobs are a good omen because that would mean our GDP is going up. We are producing something of real value to export. So positive job growth would be good; However, sans those jobs in manufacturing how the heck are these numbers a good omen?
Well, the expert tells us his suit jacket off and his sleeves slightly rolled, simply because jobs means consumer confidence. We will have more money to spend; And, since we are not going to buy American goods, these jobs help us to go further into debt and deficit.
What will help exports we are told is the weak dollar. Basically, if I am understanding what the markets are saying, is these modest gains in low paying service sector jobs, and higher paying but higher risk construction jobs ( construction workers often are too busted up to work as much after their 30's ) are great for the status quo because they increase the possibility that consumers will continue to spend themselves into debt despite spiraling energy costs, and, this debt will continue to weaken the dollar making American exports more attractive sometime in the future when the dollar hangs by an even thinner thread.
Does this sound rosy to you?
"We'll all be happy and we'll all be wise, and, together we will live beneath the burning skies." Paul Weller, The Jam, Burning Sky