Last week’s sharp drop in new filings for jobless benefits claims evaporated in today’s follow-up report.The trendless trend in initial claims rolls on.

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►Fed to Spend $600 Billion to Speed Up Recovery
David Sanger and Sewell Chan/NY Times/Nov 3
The Federal Reserve, getting ahead of the battles that will dominate national politics over the next two years, moved Wednesday to jolt the economy into recovery with a bold but risky plan to pump $600 billion into the banking system.
►What the Fed did and why: supporting the recovery and sustaining price stability
Ben Bernanke/Washington Post/Nov 4
Today, most measures of underlying inflation are running somewhat below 2 percent, or a bit lower than the rate most Fed policymakers see as being most consistent with healthy economic growth in the long run. Although low inflation is generally good, inflation that is too low can pose risks to the economy – especially when the economy is struggling. In the most extreme case, very low inflation can morph into deflation (falling prices and wages), which can contribute to long periods of economic stagnation…Critics have, for example, worried that it will lead to excessive increases in the money supply and ultimately to significant increases in inflation.Our earlier use of this policy approach had little effect on the amount of currency in circulation or on other broad measures of the money supply, such as bank deposits. Nor did it result in higher inflation.

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