The folks expecting a new recession have a new statistical challenge today. Initial jobless claims fell sharply last week, dropping 50,000 to a seasonally adjusted 352,000. The last time new filings for unemployment benefits were this low was nearly four years ago—April 2008. Last week’s large 50,000 tumble is impressive as well relative to history. Indeed, we just saw the largest weekly drop in more than three years.
Daily Archives: January 19, 2012
Golden Stump Speeches
Is Newt Gingrich now running on a hard money platform? During campaigning in South Carolina earlier this week for the state’s Republican primary on Saturday, January 21, the candidate recommended a “commission on gold to look at the whole concept of how do we get back to hard money,” CNNMoney reports. “We need to say to the Federal Reserve: Your only job is to maintain the stability of the dollar because we want a dollar to be worth thirty years from now what it is worth now,” he asserted. “Hard money is a discipline. It means you can’t inflate away your difficulties.”