[expat_panama]

 

--and a very happy Friday morning to all!  This is supposed to be the end of a busy week but for some reason or other everything's starting up more frantic than ever.  OK, so yesterday metals'n'stocks were flat and they're tepid today (futures: mtls +0.12, stks -0.01) but it's a direction change w/ stocks hinting at rally-top/consolidation and metal switching to basing mode.   Big report dump--

Nonfarm Payrolls
Nonfarm Private Payrolls
Unemployment Rate
Hourly Earnings
Average Workweek
Consumer Credit

--and the news is all over the place:

U.S. Economic Growth Is All an Illusion - John Crudele, New York Post
Doubting the Economic Data? Consider the Source - Floyd Norris, NYT
Did Wall Street Buy This Election? - David Weidner, MarketWatch
It's the Economy, and They're Not Stupid - Peter Schiff, Euro Pacific Capital
Opposition Congress Could Be Good for Growth - Jeffrey Dorfman, Forbes
Very Motivated Voters Shatter Monetary Delusions - Jeffrey Snider, RCM
GOP Congress Should Start Fixing the Fed - Seth Lipsky, New York Post

[expat_panama]

dang!

[Wyatt's Torch]

The "fake numbers" article:

And try to separate reality from ideology. In 1983, when the economy accelerated after the early 1980s recessions, some liberals were sure the numbers had to be wrong, given that it was obvious nothing good could come from the policies of President Ronald Reagan.

In 2010, there were widespread forecasts by conservatives that the economy could not improve, that inflation was bound to accelerate and the dollar would collapse if the Fed foolishly pursued its policy of quantitative easing.

All those forecasts turned out to be wrong. Does that mean the forecasters were mistaken? Some would rather think it shows the statistics are being faked.

People here are the worst... 99% of them have no idea what is going on with the entire set of economic data. Much simpler for them to believe "Obama is faking the numbers." It's just ignorant and it makes conservatives look like rubes.