unemployment benchmark revision makes things worse – The Revolution Will Not Be Revised – … But the big news is the annual benchmark revision, which trimmed previously estimated payroll levels by a substantial amount. … As you can see, the revisions to previous data are substantial. When you consider that even slightly better or worse than expected jobs numbers can cause equity and bond markets to move, a revision that comes to roughly 50k jobs per month over the course of over 2 years is a big deal. … – Annaly Salvos
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wow – Stiglitz Says U.S., U.K. Default Is ‘Absurd’ Investor Notion – By Jennifer Ryan – … Both nations “deserve to keep the Aaa rating” and “the likelihood of a default is so small, particularly in the U.S. because all we do is print money to pay it back,” he said in response to questions after a speech in London yesterday. “The notion of a default is so absurd, it’s another reflection of the absurdities in the financial markets.” … – Bloomberg BusinessWeek
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Job Stimulus Like Rescuing Drowning Man: David G. Blanchflower – You don’t refuse to save someone from drowning because they might die of cancer in a few years. They might not. Critics of U.S. President Barack Obama don’t seem to have figured it out yet that saving jobs now will increase employment in the future. – Bloomberg
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The Dumping Begins: Chinese Reserve Managers Notified That Any Non-USG Guaranteed Securities Must Be Divested – Submitted by Tyler Durden – It appears that this time China’s posturing is for real. Following up on our earlier post that Chinese military officials want to "punish" America by selling Treasuries, Asia Times Online is reporting that an explicit directive by the Chinese government has notified reserve managers to sell all risky US assets, including asset backed and corporates, and just hold on to explicitly guaranteed Treasuries and Agency debt. – Zero Hedge
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Fed’s exit may leave rates low until 2012: Bullard – … Bullard said in an interview with Fox Business News. On any decision to raise the Fed funds rate, Bullard said: "If you look at…how the FOMC has behaved in the past, it’s been two-and-a-half to three years before we’ve raised rates after the end of a recession. … – MarketWatch
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Global Warming: Survival Of The Fittest – Jonathan Fahey – Part of a forest will be enclosed, heated up and pumped with CO2 to see who wins and loses if the planet heats up. – Forbes
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Testimony by Chairman Bernanke on the Federal Reserve’s exit strategy – Released by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
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Rorty disagrees has reasons why – Some Random Thoughts on FDIC Insurances in the Debates – So a meme that has always been there, but has been growing in popularity recently for reasons I’ll attribute to the tea party movement, is that FDIC insurance on commercial banking deposits is in large part responsible for our current financial crisis. – Rortybomb