Numbers

The White House is celebrating the most recent jobs numbers. 

Quick: When was the last time Hillary Clinton had a "good" week? I don't remember either.

An estimated 90 million of us will drive 50 miles or more during this holiday season, and recent years’ gnashings of teeth at the pump are being replaced with smiles. The price of gasoline is down 36 percent since April, to a national average of around $2.40 per gallon, with some cities reporting…

The indicators for the economy are looking good.  For those who view the world through a political prism, this news may be coming too late to help the president and his party in the mid-terms.  And for those whose view is long and wide, the skies are not entirely blue.  There is the matter of labor…

With the World Series opening tonight in Kansas City, the Giants are no doubt feeling their oats. They’re coming off of a three-homerun performance in their game five win over the St. Louis Cardinals, which landed them their third World Series appearance in five years. However, the Giants should be…

First time claims came in on the low side. Unexpectedly so.  Which seems, paradoxically, predictable. 

A new chart from the minority side of the Senate Budget Committee shows a startling fact: Almost 1 in 4 Americans between the ages of 25-54 (or prime working years) are not working. 

"Mother Nature ... is screaming at us about" climate change, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told the crowd at the opening event of Climate Week NYC 2014. While Kerry used a more measured tone than that which he attributed to Mother Nature, the apocalyptic nature of his warnings were in keeping…

The new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll came out yesterday and it offers brutal news for President Obama and Democrats. It is worth looking at it in some depth.

Inside the numbers of an ABC poll in which the numbers are decidedly not going the president’s way, there is this interesting nugget:

Analysts hoping to rebut the purveyors of gloom who are arguing that America is in long-term decline were looking to Friday’s job report for comfort. They got none. Instead of continuing to create about 200,000 each month, the economy produced a mere 142,000 new payroll jobs, and only 134,000 in…

Senator Jeff Sessions has released a statement that says, "7 Million People Have Left The Workforce Since The President Took Office." The statement is in response to today's jobs numbers.

Startling charts from the Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee about male participation in the labor force, particularly men between the ages of 25-54:

But just how bad was the first quarter for the American economy?  Commerce Department GDP came in at .1 percent growth, which is treading water, but barely.  Speculation had the revised figures showing that the economy actually contracted and now, as Ben Leubsdorf of the Wall Street…

As the Boston Red Sox collected their World Series rings last Friday, Boston faithful had much to be thankful for. And among those to whom they owed more than a little thanks was Bill James, the team's official analytical guru, who enjoyed an increased role in team decision-making after the team…

Private sector employment Increased by 139,000 jobs in February as reported by ADP (Automatic Data Processing, Inc.). This early, closely watched number comes in below:

The latest jobs numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics:

At a Capitol Hill hearing, Kathleen Sebelius admitted today that the Obama administration is 3 million short of its Obamacare goal:

“Everything’s coming up roses,” a mother reassures her daughter in Gypsy, the 1959 musical chronicling the rise of burlesque dancer Gypsy Rose Lee. Were lyricist Stephen Sondheim surveying the American economy, he might want to extend the reassurance to the rest of us. For it does seem as if, at…

The latest employment data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics:

The first-time claims number comes in as … well, not so good.  This is typical if not predictable.  As Reuters reports:

The Republican National Committee issued a press release this morning saying it filed a Freedom of Information Act request to find out Obamacare enrollment figures. Here's the press release:

CNBC contributor Rick Santelli responds to today's jobs numbers:

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports:

When the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the numbers, this morning, on August unemployment, the economics, finance, and political priesthoods will commence digging into the entrails to divine Truth.  There is much to be uncertain about in the future and perhaps these numbers will tell us…

As the IRS scandal grows, the Department of Health and Human Services today published a blog post titled "Health Datapalooza IV Tops Off a Huge Year in Data Liberation":

The first of this week's three big employment numbers was released this morning. Tomorrow, we will learn the first-time claims number. Friday, the unemployment number and rate for the previous month.  As this item from Reuters indicates, the signs are not good:

The White House appears sanguine about a jobs report that one of its former economic advisors has described as a "punch to the gut."

Disappointing first time claims numbers as Reuters reports:

In his speech Wednesday night, Bill Clinton said, "President Obama started with a much weaker economy than I did. No president—not me or any of my predecessors—could have repaired all the damage in just four years." Yet, under FDR, who inherited a much weaker economy than Obama did, real GDP growth…

President Obama spent the first few minutes of his remarks today in Poland, Ohio cracking jokes with the crowd, and avoiding having to address today's disappointing jobs report:

White House chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers Alan Krueger issued this statement on today's jobs numbers:

You could almost feel the tension in the digital universe this morning, prior to 8:30 EST, at which time the Bureau or Labor Statistics would be releasing the employment number for April. The suspense—oh, the excruciating suspense! Would the number for new hires match expectations? Would the…

Some words and phrases from this Reuters story about the morning's GDP numbers: