The New York Times proclaimed corporate profits were the highest on record in Q3 2010. As a result a flurry of reports are wondering why the hell corporations are not hiring American workers?
Folks, the most horrific prediction was given by the Federal Reserve. Six, count 'em, six years of high unemployment. From the Federal Open Market Committee:
The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index rose to 71.6, a 5.8% monthly increase. The press proclaims this is the highest since June 2009. That's true, but from the graph below, that's nothing to get all excited about.
New Residential Home Sales tanked -8.1% from last month, with an annual sale rate of 283,000 new homes. Sales figures of new homes are -28.5% below this time last year. The median sales price also nose dived -14% to a national $194,900. There is now an 8.6 month's supply to sell new homes at the current rate. Below is the new home sales graph since 1980. Looks like a cliff dive, doesn't it?
New Orders in Durable Goods dropped 3.3% for October 2010, but last month's 3.3% increase was revised up to 5%. New orders has declined 3 of the past 5 months. New orders in non-defense capital goods decreased -4.5%. Core capital goods new orders also fell -4.5%.
Initial weekly unemployment claims dropped to 407,000 this week. That's close to the magic number, 400,000 or below, needed to start creating jobs. This is the lowest number since July 2008, over two years. Initial weekly unemployment claims is a volatile number, subject to revisions.
Q3 GDP 2010 was revised upward to 2.5% from 2.0%, a significant revision for gross domestic product. Real final sales, a measure of real demand in the economy, was 1.2%. Here is the actual report and here is the BEA press release.
"The incentives in Washington are all biased toward posturing and blathering about the deficit, but inaction when it comes time to seriously reduce it."
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