Layoffs, housing data point to chronic problems

[OhioChick]

Thursday, June 23, 2011, 5:11 PM

WASHINGTON -- Sour reports Thursday on the number of people who sought unemployment benefits and buyers of new homes illustrate what Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke acknowledged Wednesday: Many factors weighing on the economy are proving to be more chronic than first imagined.

Applications for unemployment benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 429,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. It was the biggest jump in a month and marked the 11th straight week that applications have been above 400,000. Elevated unemployment benefit claims signal a worsening job market.

New-home sales fell in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 319,000, the Commerce Department said. That's far below the 700,000 homes per year that economists say must be sold to sustain a healthy housing market. Sales of new homes have fallen 18 percent in the two years since the recession ended. Last year was the worst for new-home sales on records dating back half a century.

Stocks tumbled more than 200 points after the weaker data on housing and layoffs were released. It came one day after the Fed lowered its outlook for growth and unemployment for the rest of the year.

More: http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2011/06/layoffs_housing_data_point_to.html

[MannyGoldstein]

1. Tim Geithner did a good job of addressing this today.

I for one, feel better after his press conference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDAmPIq29ro

[villager]

2. +1

Going to read up now on the German bombing of Pearl Harbor...

[PoliticAverse]

4. Forget it Geithnet's rolling... n/t

[Dept of Beer]

7. I dunno. He seemed rather flat to me.

[villager]

3. "...more chronic that first imagined." This would be the Beltway version of "imagined," one guesses?

:shrug:

[PoliticAverse]

5. It's a concession that their data is imaginary not real... n/t

[MannyGoldstein]

6. Krugman, Stiglitz, and real economists beg to differ

This is exactly what real economists predicted.

[Fuddnik]

10. Hell, amateur economists in the Stock Market Watch thread have a better grasp.

But, we don't spend all of our time blowing Goldman Sachs and the other investment banks.

[Citizen Worker]

8. Bernanke, straight out of the Bush white house and reappointed by Obama, hasn't a clue! Bernanke

and Geithner should be fired forthwith.

[blkmusclmachine]

9. Bernanke, always a dollar short/day late.

[locahungaria]

11. After reading the article, it's apparent that the Beltway Elite don't have a clue...

just no clue at all!

C'mon now, have they actually LOOKED at the type of jobs that the private sector is creating? The majority of those are in THE SERVICE SECTOR! Have they really given any consideration to what living on $10 per hour or less really means?? NO, all they are concerned with (besides their precious stock market) is that "the numbers" look good.......Yay, lookee here; Mickey D's has just hired over $50,000 people! Happy days are here again.

The fact that they are actually puzzled and can't understand what they interpret to be "conflicting data", not to mention the brilliant notion that a lot of this recent "downturn" (was there actually an uptick????) is simply "temporary" (high gas prices, etc...) is scary beyond words.

BTW, K & R, OhioChick!

:kick: