Labor

By Jim Quinn of the Burning Platform

The Boomer Retirement Meme: One Big Lie

By Jody Chudley, originally posted on the Daily Reckoning

Simple Math Shows America Is Headed for an Economic Disaster

With so many voices streaming at us through our televisions and computers, a person can’t be blamed for tuning out.

For the most part, tuning out is exactly what we should do. But sometimes it is very important that we pay attention…

By listening to Jeremy Grantham, Jim Grant and a host of other investors, a person could have avoided and profited the crashing of the tech bubble of the late ’90s.

Jobs Report Blues

Paul Craig Roberts

On Friday the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that there were 215,000 new jobs in March.

John Williams of ShadowStats.com reports that these “new jobs” result from the the Birth-Death model that “artificially inflates headline month-to-month payroll gains with add-factors that currently average well in excess of 200,000 jobs per month.”

In other words, the jobs are the product of a model’s assumption that unreported new start-ups created 200,000 more jobs than unreported business failures lost.

Earlier his week, California paved the way for a $15/hour minimum wage, in a move that essentially communicated the following message: “..to hell with economics.”

The living wage issue is one of the most controversial debates playing out in America today and it goes right to the heart of partisan politics.

Anyone who’s “feeling the Bern” so to speak, believes they’re entitled to make enough flipping burgers to feed their family. And you know what? They’re wrong. Dead wrong.

The FOMC may have cut its rate hike forecast from 4 to 2, following by an even more dovish speech by Janet Yellen, but Goldman is convinced the Fed is wrong. As a result, after looking at today's payrolls report, its chief economist Jan Hatzius said that "we ultimately think the committee will move faster than the two-hike pace implied by the latest “dot plot”, despite the dovish signals from the March meeting and Chair Yellen’s remarks this week" and that "we continue to expect the FOMC to raise rates three times in 2016."