Is There Room For Bullishness On Jobs Data?

The government on Friday is releasing its estimate of job growth and unemployment for January, providing another reading on the country's most urgent economic problem.

Most economists are forecasting that hiring picked up last month. The rate is now 9.4 percent, about twice what it was before the recession.

Speaking at the National Press Club on Thursday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke again warned it will be several years before the U.S. unemployment rate returns to normal levels, but he said there are some positive signs.

"Looking at the whole range of statistics on the labor market, the sense is that employers are becoming more willing to hire, and I think we'll start seeing some stronger payroll reports and some lower unemployment rates pretty soon," he said.

Among those positive signs: lower initial claims for unemployment benefits. The latest report on initial claims, released Thursday, showed a steady downward trend continuing.

One factor holding down job growth in this recovery has been growth in productivity — that is, an increase in the amount a firm can produce with the same number of workers. The efficiency gains have been so great that the U.S. was able to return to its prerecession level of gross domestic product with about 7 million fewer workers on the job. A new report Thursday showed productivity growth accelerating.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/02/04/133480147/is-there-room-for-bullishness-on-jobs-data?ft=1&f=1003

al sharpton bill oreilly fox news hamid karzai barak obama

Deep Below Antarctic Ice, Lake May Soon See Light

Russian scientists on Antarctica are drilling down to reach a lake that's buried beneath more than two miles of ice. But some are concerned that rushing to explore the lake might disturb a primitive ecosystem that has been untouched for millions of years.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/02/03/133441327/deep-below-antarctic-ice-lake-may-soon-see-light?ft=1&f=1007

barak obama hillary clinton george w bush nancy pelosi harry reid

Health Overhaul: You Want Fries With That?

In a tweet this morning comedian Denis Leary got the state of health in America about half-right:

2 out of every 3 Americans are overweight and do not like the health care bill. Unless it comes with fries.

Sure enough, the sobering statistics on the country's weight problem are spot on. Two-thirds of people in the United States are either obese or overweight, although our national weight-gain spree appears to be leveling off.

 

But how do Americans really feel about health overhaul? The latest Kaiser Health Tracking Poll, completed in December, showed 42 percent are for the overhaul, 41 percent are against it and the rest aren't sure or wouldn't answer.

The folks at Kaiser added a "pop quiz" to the December poll to see how well Americans understood the particulars of the the Affordable Care Act. About two-thirds got the right answers to at least half of the 10 true-or-false questions. That means one-third didn't answer more than four questions correctly.

Most likely fact to get right? Seventy-two percent knew the health law will subsidize coverage for financially strapped Americans.

Most likely bit to get wrong? Only 25 percent knew that law doesn't require all businesses, including the littlest ones, to provide health insurance for their employees.

What we still don't know is how the promise of french fries might have changed Kaiser's findings. Maybe they'll add that to the mix next time.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/02/03/133464353/health-overhaul-want-fries-with-that?ft=1&f=1057

harry reid john mccain al gore bill clinton newt gingrich

ObamaCare: D.O.A.

Dick Morris, FOX NewsHow did Obama ever think that his program would pass constitutional muster? How could he imagine that the Interstate Commerce clause could cover something that wasn't interstate (health insurance cannot be sold over state lines) and wasn't commerce (failure to buy insurance is not commerce) would stand up in court? He was so sure that he would win any constitutional challenge that he arrogantly failed to put a severability clause in the bill so that it would survive even if parts were stricken down.The decision of the Florida District Court may or may not prevail in the Circuit...

Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/02/03/cornerstone_of_obama_presidency_is_collapsing_108752.html

john mccain al gore bill clinton newt gingrich sarah palin

Doctor Challenges Cause Of MS And Treatment

An Italian scientist has a controversial new theory on what causes multiple multiple sclerosis ? and how to treat it. Some patients, desperate to stop the disease's spread, have tried it, only to have it fail months later.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/01/31/133247319/doctor-challenges-cause-of-ms-and-treatment?ft=1&f=1007

hamid karzai barak obama hillary clinton george w bush nancy pelosi