Nonfarm payrolls retreated by a net 54,000 last month (seasonally adjusted) and the unemployment rate ticked up to 9.6% from 9.5% in July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this morning. The payroll loss for August isn’t as steep as the 100,000-plus decline that economists expected, but that’s cold comfort for a labor market that’s still struggling to grow. But there’s better news once we focus on the net change for private-sector payrolls, which posted a 67,000 rise—comfortably above the consensus forecast of a 44,000 gain. Better, but unimpressive.

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►Bond Bubble: A Sterile Debate
James Montier/The Big Picture
“…unless you believe that Japan is the correct template for the US (i.e. inflation will be zero for the next decade), government bonds don’t offer an attractive return as a buy-and-hold proposition.”
►Tyson’s Keynesian Confusion
Mark A. Calabria/Cato@Liberty blog
“Unlike consumption, which has largely rebounded, investment today is about 20% below its peak. Of course we should keep in mind, that peak was a bubble. The good news is that investment in such things a equipment and software, are slowly, but steadily, climbing back. The real drag on investments is from the construction industry, particularly residential, which is still down about 50% from its peak…
What most of this suggests to me is that unemployment is being driven mainly by a mismatch between skills of the unemployed and available job openings. You simply cannot, overnight, turn a construction worker into a nurse or computer programmer…
At the end of the day, what we need to get employment increasing is to create an environment where business feel confident to invest.”

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