| By Greg Robb, MarketWatch
Last update: 10:34 a.m. EST Feb. 5, 2009 WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The number of new claims for state unemployment benefits surged to their highest level since 1982, according to official data released Thursday, a sign that the U.S. labor market is deteriorating at a rapid rate. Initial jobless claims rose 35,000 to a seasonally adjusted 626,000 in the week ended Jan. 31, the Labor Department reported. This put the number at the highest level in 26 years. Meanwhile, the four-week average of new claims rose by 39,000 to 582,250. The four-week average draws the attention of economists and investors because it smoothes out distortions caused by bad weather, strikes or the timing of holidays. It is now at the highest level since Dec. 4, 1982. Continuing jobless claims rose by 20,000 in the week ended Jan. 24 to a seasonally adjusted 4.79 million, the most since the government's records began in 1967. The January employment report will be released on Friday, with economists currently expecting a loss of at least 500,000 for what would be the third consecutive month. See full story. "Friday's job numbers are likely to again be very bad and the markets are girding for that, especially with jobless claims continuing to hit levels not seen since the steep back-to-back recessions in the early 1980s," wrote Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisers, in a note to clients. In December, 524,000 nonfarm payroll jobs were lost, capping the worst year for U.S. job losses since 1945. Link to Article |
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| Associated Press finds that over the past five years, the money the military spends on winning hearts and minds at home and abroad has grown by 63 percent, to at least $4.7 billion this year.
WASHINGTON-- As it fights two wars, the Pentagon is steadily and dramatically increasing the money it spends to win what it calls "the human terrain" of world public opinion. In the process, it is raising concerns of spreading propaganda at home in violation of federal law. An Associated Press investigation found that over the past five years, the money the military spends on winning hearts and minds at home and abroad has grown by 63 percent, to at least $4.7 billion this year, according to Department of Defense budgets and other documents. That's almost as much as it spent on body armor for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2004 and 2006. This year, the Pentagon will employ 27,000 people just for recruitment, advertising and public relations -- almost as many as the total 30,000-person work force in the State Department. "We have such a massive apparatus selling the military to us, it has become hard to ask questions about whether this is too much money or if it's bloated," says Sheldon Rampton, research director for the Committee on Media and Democracy, which tracks the military's media operations. "As the war has become less popular, they have felt they need to respond to that more. " Yet the money spent on media and outreach still comes to only 1 percent of the Pentagon budget, and the military argues it is well-spent on recruitment and the education of foreign and American audiences. Military leaders say that at a time when extremist groups run Web sites and distribute video, information is as important a weapon as tanks and guns. "We have got to be involved in getting our case out there, telling our side of the story, because believe me, al-Qaida and all of those folks ... that's what they are doing on the Internet and everywhere else," says Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., who chairs the Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee. "Every time a bomb goes off, they have a story out almost before it explodes, saying that it killed 15 innocent civilians." Link to Article |  |
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| Posted Feb 06, 2009 08:05am EST by Aaron Task The fiscal stimulus bill being debated in Congress not only won't help the economy, it will make the recession much worse, says Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital. Schiff scoffs at the notion the economic decline is starting to level off and concedes no government action means a "terrible" recession. But the path of increased government intervention will lead to "unmitigated disaster," says Schiff, who gained notoriety in 2007-08 for his prescient calls on the housing bubble and U.S. stocks. The problem, he says, is the government is trying to perpetuate a "phony economy" based on borrowing and spending. With the U.S. consumer tapped out, the government is "now taking on the mantle" of consumer of last resort, he continues, predicting the bond bubble will soon burst - if it hasn't already - ultimately leading to a collapse of the dollar and an "inflationary depression worse than anything any of us have ever seen." If nothing else, Schiff is an nonpartisan critic of American policymakers, comparing President Bush to Herbert Hoover and President Obama to FDR, and neither in a favorable way. Note: Stay tuned for part 2 of my interview with Schiff, where he addresses recent criticism of his investing prowess. Link to Article |  |