Uhh, Financial Collapse/World Recession II?
We mentioned earlier this morning that there are some troubles in the world economy -- and that includes us, in the America part of Earth. Well, uhh, it's really awful. Remember that 1,000-point drop in the Dow blamed on robots or astrology or whatever? Ha ha well now there's a 1,000-point drop for real, it just took a few weeks. On April 26, the DJIA was at 11,239. Today, right now, were at 10,212. The S&P and NASDAQ and Nikkei and Oil and the U.S. Dollar and Platinum and even Ron/Rand Paul's GOLD is down (but just a quarter-percent, compared to nearly 2% this morning on the major U.S. markets). How does this affect "Main Street," you ask? Main Street is boarded up and closed down. Unemployment is, somehow, even higher now than it was three months ago.
The number of people filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week by the largest amount in three months. The surge is evidence of how volatile the job market remains, even as the economy grows.
Applications for unemployment benefits rose to 471,000 last week, up by 25,000 from the previous week, the Labor Department said Thursday. It was the first increase in five weeks and the biggest jump since a gain of 40,000 in February.
Meanwhile, the Democratsjust announcedthey've got the 60 Senate votes for financial reform. Is this good? Is this bad? (For the economy.) Eventually, it's good, right? If there's still an "eventually." (What we mean is, how much can you financially reform the exchange of handjobs for hobo beans?)