Jobs again. Last Friday morning, before the jobs data came out, I heard news commentary that jobs would be somewhere in the range of 50,000 down and 50,000 up. But they went down 85,000 in December. Oops. The silver lining crowd found good news in a revised up November number, strong temporary help, and online job advertisements. But alas, it is what it is. Unemployment is the starkest, realest part of a recession, and 10% stinks. We’ve been saying, “next month” for months. Since consumers seem to have changed their buying habits to be more conservative, it stands to reason that businesses have as well, so we’ll have to wait for strong growth to fuel the need to hire more people. If you believe the Good News section, you might envision this happening before too long.
Two other pillars of bad news. 1) Housing market: Foreclosures were up 80% in 09 versus 08; New home sales in November were 11% under forecast, and 9% under the prior November; Sixty percent of people who modified their mortgages a year ago are defaulting again; Builders aren’t building – construction spending slid a 7th straight month in November. 2) State finances are in trouble. This appeared last week in Bad News, but it has heated up even more as legislatures are meeting across the country to fix it, as they are in Maine.
Tax Code gone off the chart. What does it mean? In 1939, the entire Federal Tax Code document was 540 pages. That sounds pretty long as it is. This year’s publication is. . . (brace yourself). . . over 70,000 pages long.
