Friday, June 3, 2011

Upcoming unemployment report

A little nervous about the unemployment numbers about to come out; however, so is everyone else, so maybe markets are more likely to be surprised to the upside than down.

I'm also more than a little frustrated with the lack of fiscal policy on this front. Ben Bernanke has been doing all the recent heavy lifting in terms of trying to stimulate demand across the economy, but at a certain point monetary policy loses its leverage - while I think he deserves praise for creativity, there's only so much the Fed can do.

Meanwhile, our politicians are focused to a fault on austerity and deficit reduction. To me, this is like donning a winter coat in July because you know eventually winter will swing around and you'll freeze without it. No doubt about that, but that's the last thing we need now - water now, wool later.