No Sense in Letting the Recovery Take Hold

Megan Woolhouse, Boston Globe.

"A study by The Pew Charitable Trusts, an independent nonprofit, found the median interest rate advertised by most credit card companies in July 2009 was 13 to 23 percent higher than rates in December 2008."

The banks are not going to take regulation lying down. They've fired a preemptive strike. Credit rates are going to rise and rise quickly in the next few months. Just what our economy needs right now. Tighter credit with predatory rates.  Let's see what Congress does. Especially now that we're entering an election year.

Unemployment Numbers Explanation

Maybe an this is the explanation for why unemployment jumped. It's the up-until-now resilient self-employed who are finally feeling the pinch. Catherine Rampell.

It might be the self-employed, said Joseph Brusuelas, director at Moody’s Economy.com. Self-employed workers are not included in payroll (establishment) numbers, and the household survey data show that this group was hit particularly hard in the last month. 

There may be some hope in the darker numbers, though. From Dave Leonhardt at Economix.

The drop in the blue line toward the right side of the chart shows the pick-up of job loss in September (to 219,000). In October, job losses fell to 190,000 — better than September but still not as good as August (154,000 job losses). Looking at these numbers, you might be tempted to conclude the recovery in the job market has stalled; things have not really improved over the last few months.

Still going to be a tough holiday season, though.

Chart of the Day

Chart by Calculated Risk. Quote from James Pethokoukis.

"Remember in the early 1980s 7 straight quarters of avg. GDP growth of roughly 7% (!) lowered jobless rate by only 2.5 percentage points. Hard to see economy booming like that between now and Election Day 2010."

World Series 2009

27th World Series Champions

No. 25 Syracuse loses stunner to Le Moyne

Nice way to wake up this morning. I didn't even know that Le Moyne and Syracuse had started their seasons.  Le Moyne scored 50 points in the second half and overcame a 10 point second half deficit.  Le Moyne will use this picture in a lot of recruits homes in the next few years. Especially as they (tentatively) prepare to go D1 by the middle of the next decade. 

Update 1/20/10:: Syracuse has risen to the top 5.