Economics Update

Scary Pix Courtesy of Barron’s Econoday

So the unemployment rate jumped ½% in February, from 7.6% to 8.1%. and 651,000 jobs were lost.

Additionally, U6, the broadest measure of un and under employment is at 14.8%, and note that U6 is the statistic closest to the 20+% unemployment rates recorded in the great depression.
….
Delightful.

If that weren’t bad enough, 20% of all mortgaged properties are under water, and something around 1 in 9 mortgages are either in foreclosure or delinquent, so any turn around in residential real estate is are greatly exaggerated.

It also looks like the FDIC is asking Congress to lend it $500 billion, because its insurance fund is depleted.

We do have Baltic Dry Index, a measure of the demand for cargo shipping, one piece of good news, in that the just hit its highest level this year, which indicates more international trade.

Meanwhile, the jump in unemployment has driven the dollar down, and oil up.

Leave a Reply