Friday, March 06, 2009

And Exuberance

Another 651,000 jobs were lost in February, so the stock market is up. Yes, up. Who is buying those stocks based on 651,000 jobs lost in one month? It sure as hell isn't the 651,000 people who lost their jobs. Traders were expecting 680,000 jobs to be lost, so they are buying stocks because a mere 651,000 jobs were shed. So 680,000 is a big number, while 651,000 is a small number, a wonderful number, an encouraging number, a number that indicates in the fevered imaginations of stock traders that our economy is recovering.

I somehow doubt that such a number is very encouraging to the 651,000 people who are in that number.

Update: Friday, 12:30pm
Well, I see it's down again, but it was trending up when I wrote the post and the reason that was being given was that "February job losses were less than predicted."

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