July 2, 2004
I STAND CORRECTED, HE'S A GENIUS:
Soft US jobs report may slow pace of Fed rate hikes (Victoria Thieberger, July 2, 2004, Reuters)
A rise in June payrolls that was only half of analysts' forecasts on Friday poured cold water on the view the Federal Reserve may need to step up its pace of interest rate increases, after a modest start to the tightening cycle this week.Economists said the modest gain of 112,000 payrolls in June pushed the option of an aggressive half-percentage point increase in the federal funds rate in August off the table.
If Mr. Greenspan really has accomplished this by merely jawboning and will no longer undertake what would be disastrous and unnecessary rate hikes then he really is The Maestro. If we can avoid growth-stifling hikes at the cost of a few extra jobs one month it will be a great thing.
Posted by Orrin Judd at July 2, 2004 2:54 PM
Job number of 112K was dissapointing but still a decent gain. It's the expectations game again. And others are pointing out that the Household survey did show an increase of 259K vs last month. But this gives the media and the Dems another reason to bash Bush.
Posted by: AWW at July 2, 2004 3:01 PMThat he's creating jobs?
Posted by: oj at July 2, 2004 3:06 PMAWW
You suffer from the same pessimism syndrome that I do. That why I come to OJ's place. However don't ever expect Democrats/socialist to just shut up. Never happen. They don't need a "reason" to bash Bush, it just sort of bursts out of them, like a bad case of gas.
Only 112,000 jobs?
We need somebody with a real economic program.
H-man. Agreed. And I do come to Brotherjudd land to get cheered up as well.
Posted by: AWW at July 2, 2004 4:27 PMWell, it is an election year. The Demmycrats aren't going to get elected on a platform of "Everything's going great!" Personally, I don't think they're going to get elected on their current platform of "George Bush is the Devil!" but hey, E for effort.
I come here for a good laugh at others' expense, the epitome of conservative humor.