Labor

We expected a hawkish tilt to the Fed's speakers this week - in confusing opposition to Yellen's dovish commentary - and after Harker's earlier comments, it appears Fed's Evans comments that he "sees more upside possibility in uncertainty" facing The Fed, has sparked a wave of selling in stocks...

• *EVANS SEES MORE UPSIDE POSSIBILITY IN UNCERTAINTY FACING FED
• *EVANS: LOWER CAPITAL EXPANSION MAY REFLECT LOWER TREND GROWTH

And Evans offered this more hawkish bias too...

Authored by Ted Goodman via The Daily Caller

A new study that analyzes the potential effects of a $15 minimum wage in the District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.), found that an increase to $15 could cost 1,200 jobs.

Standard and Poor's credit rating analysts for the state of New Jersey, David Hitchcock and John Sugden, apparently think that funding only half of your state's annual actuarially determined contributions is a bad thing...who knew?  So, just to make sure we achieve crystal clarity here, S&P believes that adding to NJ's $66 billion pension underfunded liability, which would be much higher but for a ridiculous assumption the state makes in setting its return on assets at an artificially high rate of 7.65%, each and every year by contributing less to the fund than what is

UMich consumer confidence rose in the preliminary March print, beating expectations at 97.6 with current conditions surging but expectations stalling somewhat.

This exuberance is occurring as real earnings growth slumps. But crucially, the partisan divide is unprecedented.

The overall level of consumer sentiment remained quite favorable in early March due to renewed strength in current economic conditions as well as the extraordinary influence of partisanship on economic prospects.

Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,

The toxic dollar is bringing hell in a handbasket.

Along with the student loan debt bubble and other major financial factors, the looming pensions crisis is bound to be the death of us all.

Because it’s based on a future promise to pay, it has long been a benefit dangled to solve strikes and union disputes – because, in the end, it is just more debt, whether private or public.