It'sThe Economy,Stupid!

02/21/10 • Uncommon Sense

Today’s labor department job report shows initial claims for unemployment benefits increased 31,000 to 473,000. There are now approximately 14,577,800 officially unemployed Americans. That is almost 9 million jobs lost since mid 2007. Further aggravating the situation, the Producer Price Index for Finished Goods rose 1.4% in January. This increase followed a 0.4% increase in December and a 1.5% increase in November. The index for finished goods excluding foods and energy rose 0.3 percent in January. This is a meaningless number as we all require both food and energy. The bad news is about 75% of the increase last month was due to a 5.1% jump on food and energy goods. Prices for finished goods moved up 4.6 percent for the 12 months ended January 2010, their third consecutive 12-month increase. Here is your warning sign; the 1.4% increase in January could easily translate into a 10+% inflation rate if the trend continues. Unless this is an anomaly we could be on pace for a signif