Employment Report

Terrible news from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 36,000 jobs added in January, well below the 150,000 the market expected. To add insult to injury, the unemployment rate fell to 9.0%, a drop of 0.4%, as more people gave up on looking for work. As state and local governments cut more jobs to close budget holes, and the Republican congress and the President begin slashing spending to close a giant budget deficit fueled by stupid tax cuts and wasteful wars, the economy will pull back to anemic growth, or possibly a second recession.