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Economists and lawmakers view the jobs report as good news. The US economy gained 288,000 jobs, and the unemployment rate dropped to 6.1%. One economist even said the report is "as good an excuse as any to enjoy the weekend's fireworks." Yet as Americans struggle to make do with their stagnant wages and the bills that never seem to stop piling up, one thing has to go: vacations. So as businesses anticipate a slower summer, thousands of restaurant and hotel workers are left without work.

Is this the reason for the blowout, on the surface, payroll number? In June the BLS reports that the number of full-time jobs tumbled by 523K to 118.2 million while part-time jobs soared by 799K to over 28 million!

Believe it or not, it was 10 years ago this month that Barack Obama, then a candidate for the U.S. Senate, introduced himself to America with a speech that shook the Fleet Center in Boston. The main theme of that Democratic convention was the litany of George W. Bush's failures — an unpopular and unending war in Iraq, a faltering image abroad, a stagnating middle class. Obama gave eloquent voice to those frustrations, arguing that all of them could be addressed if only we reunited the electorate. Probably Obama himself would not have guessed then that he would ascend to...

IF ANYONE ought to appreciate the power of immigration to stimulate employment, it is America's energetic anti-immigration advocates, whose jobs wouldn't exist if it weren't for the influx of immigrants they spend their days seeking to curtail. Then again, appreciating anything about immigration — least of all the ironies of our endless debate on the subject — goes against the restrictionists' grain. Fulminating about immigrants is one of America's enduring pastimes, and it doesn't leave a lot of room for wry humor. Or for logical consistency. Which helps explain why immigrants can be depicted on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays as...

Why do bad things always happen to him? Last week, the establishment press largely shrugged off the awful and ominous news that the economy shrank at an annual rate of 2.9 percent [1] during this year’s first quarter. When they deigned to notice it, they usually told their readers, listeners and viewers that happy days have now returned.Unfortunately, the reported contraction is historically foreboding: The 5.5-point downward swing from the fourth quarter’s 2.6 percent annualized growth to the first quarter’s 2.9 percent contraction was the largest such move from expansion to decline since the fourth quarter of 1981 [2].Since...

Is this the reason for the blowout, on the surface, payroll number? In June the BLS reports that the number of full-time jobs tumbled by 523K to 118.2 million while part-time jobs soared by 799K to over 28 million! Looking at the breakdown of full and part-time jobs so far in 2014, we find that 926K full-time jobs were added to the US economy. The offset: 646K part-time jobs. Something tells us that the fact that the BLS just reported June part-time jobs rose by just shy of 800,000 the biggest monthly jump since 1993, will hardly get much airplay...

Hiring over the past five months has been the strongest since the late 1990s tech boom as the economy added 288,000 jobs in June and the unemployment rate fell to 6.1 percent from 6.3 percent. The Labor Department says those gains follow additions of 217,000 jobs in May and 304,000 in April, figures that were both revised upward.

This is the third part of the article by Italian journalist Alessandra Nucci. Here are the first two parts: The Looting of ItalyHow the EU and the Left Ruined Italy ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A Never-ending Flow of Illegal Immigrants Overburdens Italian WelfareVery little is ever said about the immigration load, which together with bureaucracy is largely responsible for the burgeoning debt. It is routinely downplayed, while Italy gets lectured to for supposedly not living up to impossible standards that are provably not expected of any other country. The Italian Coastguard and Carabinieri have saved countless lives and generous Italian welfare, including...

The Supreme Court on Tuesday confirmed that its decision a day earlier extending religious rights to closely held corporations applies broadly to the contraceptive coverage requirement in the new health care law, not just the handful of methods the justices considered in their ruling. The justices did not comment in leaving in place lower court rulings in favor of businesses that object to covering all 20 methods of government-approved contraception....

The United States could soon become a large-scale Spain or Greece, teetering on the edge of financial ruin. That’s according to Donald Trump, who painted a very ugly picture of where this country is headed. Trump made the comments during a recent appearance on Fox News’ “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren.” According to Trump, the United States is no longer a rich country. “When you’re not rich, you have to go out and borrow money. We’re borrowing from the Chinese and others. We’re up to $16 trillion in debt.” He goes on to point out that the downgrade...

Emmie Martin and Max NisenJuly 1, 2014 When you think about Houston, Texas, you probably picture massive oil refineries, oppressive humidity, and a sub-par baseball team — a far cry from one of the nation's most up-and-coming cities. But you shouldn't dismiss Houston so easily; the Bayou City is an economic juggernaut. It's by far the country's No. 1 job creator and home to 26 Fortune 500 companies. A paycheck goes farther here than anywhere else in the country, and it has a medical center larger than downtown Dallas.Add a thriving restaurant and cultural scene, and you've got a winning...

Do you know why the U.S. economy shrank almost 3 percent in the first quarter of this year? When the news of the dreadful gross domestic product (GDP) number came out last week, many were surprised, but none were more surprised than the folks in the Obama administration. Many of their supporters had been saying this was the year of a real economic recovery. The quick reaction was to blame the bad GDP numbers on the weather, and it is true that much of the country did have record cold temperatures, but in all likelihood the weather was only a...

Tyler Durden 06/30/2014 Copper has rallied almost 6% in the last few weeks with a 1.25% surge today sending the 'economic' metal back to near 4-month highs. This must means demand is picking up, right? This must mean the world is ok, right? Chatter is that this morning's home sales 'noise' surprise spike was the catalyst but it appears much more likely that a combination of a continued squeeze of a very-extended spec short position and the ongoing unwind of China's commodity-finance-deals is the real catalyst. As the market comes to terms with synthetic demand (CCFD unwinds buying back hedges)...

During a meeting with analysts and investors on Wednesday, Advance Auto Parts executives were asked how many stores they expect to close as a result of the company's acquisition of Raleigh-based General Parts International. George Sherman, Advance Auto's president, said the company is consolidating 100 stores as part of a first round of closings. "There will be more going forward," he said. "We have to assess fully 1,200-plus stores across the country. There will be a large group of consolidations, but there will be a lot of conversations where we flip the banner and there will be some relocations." General...

If ever there were good political reason for both parties finally to cooperate in passing at least one type of tax reform, two economic stories in the past fortnight provide that reason in abundance.Two weeks ago, Medtronic, Inc., a major medical-device manufacturer in the U.S., agreed to merge with rival Covidien PLC, domiciled in Ireland. The companies merged largely to escape the outlandishly high American corporate-tax rates that are piled atop Obamacare’s senseless medical-device tax.Last Wednesday, the Commerce Department made a stunning downward revision in its report of first-quarter gross domestic product, announcing that the economy contracted at a 2.9...

Jim EdwardsJune 30, 2014  The Bank for International Settlements — the Swiss-based financial institution that acts as a counterparty to national central banks — has declared that stock markets are currently in a "euphoric" state and has urged central banks globally to begin tightening interest rate policies now while economies are growing rather than wait for another recession, when it will be too late. Those are scary words, coming from a set of economists whose job it is to monitor how capable central banks are of responding to economic conditions with flexible monetary policy. The subtext (and not-so-subtext) of...

1 million immigrants a year isn’t enough for the cheap votes/cheap labor lobby. Their Super-Amnesty is determined to legalize another 12 million illegal aliens and import millions more using amnesty as a magnet.The current border crisis is only a small part of what will happen should Congress pass Super-Amnesty.Advocates of Super-Amnesty claim that immigration is an engine of job growth. It’s not. Cheap labor just undercuts the middle class while cheap votes passes the social welfare bill to that same middle class. All Employment Growth Since 2000 Went to Immigrants – Number of U.S.-born not working grew by 17 millionGovernment...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)“By every economic measure, we are better off now than we were when I took office. You wouldn’t know it, but we are,” the president said Friday. That’s right, the president — the president of the United States, mind you — says Americans are better off, they just don’t know it. That is the height to which the president has raised his level of mendacity. He has the sheer audacity to tell Americans that he has successfully turned the economy around, that things are all good, but that there are no real quantifiable indicators by which they could ever know...

Yesterday was the 100th anniversary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo which sparked the war and the NYSE decided to close for the duration (more here).  This week we begin the new quarter --and the second half of 2014.  We'll see if the GDP for Q2 shows any improvement (1st report coming out in three weeks).  Imho we're in an economy where we can still make money but it's just going to take more effort. Review of last week here, reports/consensus coming out this week here. This is the thread where folks swap ideas on savings and...

Nicole Hill holds up her past-due water bill at her home in Detroit. Her water has been off for about six weeks. It has been six weeks since the city turned off Nicole Hill's water. Dirty dishes are piled in the sink of her crowded kitchen, where the yellow-and-green linoleum floor is soiled and sticky. A small garbage can is filled with water from a neighbor, while a bigger one sits outside in the yard, where she hopes it will collect some rain. She's developed an intricate recycling system of washing the dishes, cleaning the floor and flushing the...