Widget Image
Follow PPD Social Media
follow
1,000 Followers
follow
0 Followers
follow
People's Pundit Locals Community
Tuesday, February 25, 2025
SECTIONS
logo
mobile-logo
HomeStandard Blog Whole Post (Page 656)
Economy

unemployment-benefits

Weekly jobless claims, or first-time claims for unemployment benefits reported by the Labor Department.

The number of American applying for jobless claims rose by 7,000 to 284,000 for the week ending January 9,  higher than the estimate for 275,000. The Labor Department also said on Thursday that the prior week was unrevised at 277,000.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims actually falling and a Labor Department analyst said there were no special factors that contributed to the report.

Still, the report marks the 45th consecutive week that the weekly jobless claims data remained below the 300,000 mark, typically associated with strong labor market conditions and the longest such stretch since the early 1970s. The 4-week moving average–which is widely considered a better gauge as it irons out volatility–was 278,750, an increase of 3,000 from the previous week’s unrevised average of 275,750.

Worth noting, the number of weekly jobless claims in the report is directly influenced by the number of long-term unemployed Americans, who are simply no longer eligible for benefits and are no longer looking for a job. Further, the claims report showed the number of people still receiving benefits after an initial week of aid rose 29,000to 2.26 million in the week ended Jan. 2. The four-week moving average of the so-called continuing claims increased 5,250 to 2.22 million.

No state was triggered “on” the Extended Benefits program during the week ending December 26.

Initial claims for UI benefits filed by former Federal civilian employees totaled 1,071 in the week ending January 2, an increase of 181 from the prior week. There were 875 initial claims filed by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 145 from the preceding week. There were 15,123 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending December 26, an increase of 2,160 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 16,454, an increase of 851 from the prior week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending December 26 were in Alaska (4.9), Montana (3.2), New Jersey (2.9), Pennsylvania (2.8), West Virginia (2.8), Connecticut (2.7), Illinois (2.6), Minnesota (2.6), Wyoming (2.6), Massachusetts (2.5), Nevada (2.5), and Rhode Island (2.5).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending January 2 were in New York (+15,090), Georgia (+12,139), Pennsylvania (+11,216), Alabama (+3,272), and Wisconsin (+3,266), while the largest decreases were in Illinois (- 3,633), California (-2,191), Puerto Rico (-1,718), Ohio (-1,428), and Maryland (-1,061).

The number of American applying for jobless

Economy

jp-morgan-building

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. headquarters in New York City. (Photo: Reuters)

JP Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM), the nation’s biggest bank by assets, posted fourth-quarter earnings per share of $1.32 on revenue of $22.9 billion. The results–which mark a 10.2% rise in profit for the last quarter–easily beat Wall Street expectations and company estimates on both measures.

“We had a good quarter as 2015 came to a close,” Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO said in a statement. The businesses generated strong loan growth and credit quality, except for some stress in energy. The consumer business continues to gather deposits, outpacing the industry. Markets were somewhat quieter, and we saw the impact reflected in the results of our trading and Asset Management businesses.”

On a per share basis, JP Morgan reported earning $1.32. Analysts expected profits per share of $1.25 on revenue of $22.89 billion. Discipline on expenses contributed greatly to the better-than-expected report. The bank’s net income rose to $5.43 billion in the three months ended Dec. 31 from $4.93 billion a year earlier.

“Looking at performance for the full year, 2015 was another record year for the Firm for net income and EPS, and importantly we exceeded on all of our commitments – balance sheet optimization, capital, GSIB and expense,” Dimon added. “On operating leverage, we delivered core efficiencies while continuing to invest in innovation and technology, infrastructure and talent – crucial for protecting the company and customers, and for our growth.”

JPMorgan is the first big bank to report results since the Federal Reserve (Federal Open Markets Committee) raised its benchmark interest rate for the first time since 2006 on Dec. 16. Because it enables them to charge higher rates on loans, themselves, interest rates are typically good for banks.

Citigroup Inc and Wells Fargo & Co, the third and fourth biggest U.S. banks, report results on Friday.

“The Firm is getting safer and stronger each year. We are continuing to adjust our strategy to the new world and to meeting all requirements,” Dimon concluded. “We see exciting opportunities to invest for the future, to continue to deliver better and faster for our clients and customers.”

JP Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM), the

News

consumer-spending

A shopper organizes his cash before paying for merchandise at a Best Buy Co. store in Peoria, Illinois, U.S., on Friday, Nov. 23, 2012. (Photo: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg/Getty)

The winning numbers in Wednesday’s record $1.5 billion Powerball jackpot are: 8-27-34-4-19 and the Powerball is 10. The jackpot is the largest in U.S. history.

The winning numbers in Wednesday’s record $1.5

Opinion

Chelsea-Hillary-Bill-Clinton-money

Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton at the Clinton Foundation with money imposed over the photo. (Original Photo: AP)

The federal criminal investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s failure to secure state secrets was ratcheted up earlier this week, and at the same time, the existence of a parallel criminal investigation of another aspect of her behavior was made known. This is the second publicly revealed expansion of the FBI’s investigations in two months.

I have argued for two months that Clinton’s legal woes are either grave or worse than grave. That argument has been based on the hard, now public evidence of her failure to safeguard national security secrets and the known manner in which the Department of Justice addresses these failures.

The failure to safeguard state secrets is an area of the law in which the federal government has been aggressive to the point of being merciless. State secrets are the product of members of the intelligence community’s risking their lives to obtain information.

Before she was entrusted with any state secrets — indeed, on her first full day as secretary of state — Clinton received instruction from FBI agents on how to safeguard them; and she signed an oath swearing to comply with the laws commanding the safekeeping of these secrets. She was warned that the failure to safeguard secrets — known as espionage — would most likely result in aggressive prosecution.

In the cases of others, those threats have been carried out. The Obama Department of Justice prosecuted a young sailor for espionage for sending a selfie to his girlfriend, because in the background of the photo was a view of a sonar screen on a submarine. It prosecuted a heroic Marine for espionage for warning his superiors of the presence of an al-Qaida operative in police garb inside an American encampment in Afghanistan, because he used a Gmail account to send the warning.

It also prosecuted Gen. David Petraeus for espionage for keeping secret and top-secret documents in an unlocked drawer in his desk inside his guarded home. It alleged that he shared those secrets with a friend who also had a security clearance, but it dropped those charges.

The obligation of those to whom state secrets have been entrusted to safeguard them is a rare area in which federal criminal prosecutions can be based on the defendant’s negligence. Stated differently, to prosecute Clinton for espionage, the government need not prove that she intended to expose the secrets.

The evidence of Clinton’s negligence is overwhelming. The FBI now has more than 1,300 protected emails that she received on her insecure server and sent to others — some to their insecure servers. These emails contained confidential, secret or top-secret information, the negligent exposure of which is a criminal act.

One of the top-secret emails she received and forwarded contained a photo taken from an American satellite of the North Korean nuclear facility that detonated a device just last week. Because Clinton failed to safeguard that email, she exposed to hackers and thus to the North Koreans the time, place and manner of American surveillance of them. This type of data is in the highest category of protected secrets.

Last weekend, the State Department released two smoking guns — each an email from Clinton to a State Department subordinate. One instructed a subordinate who was having difficulty getting a document to Clinton that she had not seen by using a secure State Department fax machine to use an insecure fax machine. The other instructed another subordinate to remove the “confidential” or “secret” designation from a document Clinton had not seen before sending it to her. These two emails show a pattern of behavior utterly heedless of the profound responsibilities of the secretary of state, repugnant to her sworn agreement to safeguard state secrets, and criminal at their essence.

Also this past weekend, my Fox News colleagues Katherine Herridge and Pamela Browne learned from government sources that the FBI is investigating whether Clinton made any decisions as secretary of state to benefit her family foundation or her husband’s speaking engagements. If so, this would be profound public corruption.

This investigation was probably provoked by several teams of independent researchers — some of whom are financial experts and have published their work — who have been investigating the Clinton Foundation for a few years. They have amassed a treasure-trove of documents demonstrating fraud and irregularities in fundraising and expenditures, and they have shown a pattern of favorable State Department treatment of foreign entities coinciding with donations by those entities to the Clinton Foundation and their engaging former President Bill Clinton to give speeches.

There are now more than 100 FBI agents investigating Hillary Clinton. Her denial that she is at the core of their work is political claptrap with no connection to reality. It is inconceivable that the FBI would send such vast resources in the present dangerous era on a wild-goose chase.

It is the consensus of many of us who monitor government behavior that the FBI will recommend indictment. That recommendation will go to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who, given Clinton’s former status in the government and current status in the Democratic Party, will no doubt consult the White House.

If a federal grand jury were to indict Clinton for espionage or corruption, that would be fatal to her political career.

If the FBI recommends indictment and the attorney general declines to do so, expect Saturday Night Massacre-like leaks of draft indictments, whistleblower revelations and litigation, and FBI resignations, led by the fiercely independent and intellectually honest FBI Director James Comey himself.

That would be fatal to Clinton’s political career, as well.

Last weekend, the State Department released two

Opinion

Clinton-Gowdy-subpoena

Hillary Clinton, left, said in an interview with CNN that she was not under a subpoena to hand over emails she had deleted. Benghazi Select Committee Chair Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., produced that subpoena, right.

When Thomas E. McNamara arrived in Colombia as U.S. ambassador in 1988, he encountered a hit list issued by narco-terrorist Pablo Escobar. “I was No. 1,” he recalls. “Ambassadors tend to get that kind of attention.”

On a different mission to confer with Lebanese government officials, McNamara was greeted with “a welcome-to-Beirut mortar and artillery barrage,” which landed in the parking lot outside the building. “We picked up papers and went to the basement, where there was a secure bunker,” McNamara, later named ambassador-at-large for counterterrorism, told me.

No, being a professional foreign service officer is not all about cocktails in Paris, London and Rome. In fact, little of it is. Most members of the U.S. foreign service serve in harsh parts of the world. And much of their job centers on going into dangerous countryside where they’re exposed to some who would do them harm.

Since World War II, at least eight ambassadors have died from hostile action, as opposed to three flag officers — that is, generals and admirals. From 1979 to 2009, some 96 American foreign service members died in attacks.

Which brings us to the Sept. 11, 2012, murders of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi, Libya. The attacks on our diplomatic compound in Benghazi were a tragedy for everyone, but to professional foreign service officers, the politicization of them was a disgrace.

Blaming then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for security lapses in Benghazi is outrageous, McNamara said, emphasizing that he never worked for her. The secretary of state is not personally involved in such matters.

“Those congressmen wouldn’t give a damn about the death of Americans in Benghazi if they didn’t think they could make political capital out of it,” McNamara angrily added.

Many Americans still regard formal diplomacy as a frilly European thing. That’s partly a hangover from the 18th and 19th centuries, when only the wealthy were sent to foreign posts because the pay was so low. Since then, the foreign service has become a meritocracy, dependent on tough entrance exams.

A new PBS documentary, “America’s Diplomats,” tries to explain the history and mission of the foreign service.

“It’s easy to understand the 101st Airborne when they go out and they win a big battle for America,” former Secretary of State James Baker says in the film. “It’s not as easy to understand the battles that are won every day in the field by America’s diplomats abroad.”

Thousands of those battles involve helping Americans do business abroad. Example: Some years ago, the European Union issued new rules governing the size of motorcycle engines. Purportedly intended to make motorcycling safer, the regulations had the effect of freezing out one U.S. manufacturer, Harley-Davidson. American diplomats who had developed relationships with European officials negotiated for some minor technical changes in the rules. Harley was in.

And there were major humanitarian breakthroughs. As a special envoy, the late Richard Holbrooke led a tireless campaign to end the bloodshed in Bosnia. When Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic wouldn’t let Holbrooke and his team securely land in Sarajevo, the group drove a perilous mountain road to get there. One vehicle transporting team members rolled down a mountainside. All aboard died.

But American diplomacy eventually won out. The 1995 Dayton Accords ended Europe’s worst human calamity since World War II.

Many worry that the political circus around Benghazi will deter American officials from taking risks in the name of diplomacy. That would deny America its first line of defense. The best way to honor Stevens would be as a patriot-diplomat who accepted risk in service to his country.

A new PBS documentary, "America's Diplomats," explains

Entertainment

Al Jazeera

The headquarters of the Qatar-based television broadcaster Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera America, which went on the air in 2013–and is partly funded by the ruling family of Qatar–announced it is shutting down at the end of April, citing the “economic landscape in the U.S. media market place.”

“Al Jazeera America will cease operation by April 30, 2016,” the network said in a statement, adding that “while Al Jazeera America built a loyal audience across the U.S. and increasingly was recognized as an important new voice in television news, the economic landscape of the media environment has driven its strategic decision to wind down its operations and conclude its service.”

The Qatar based television broadcaster announced in September that it would cut 1,000 jobs worldwide as it looked for cost-cutting savings in the face of falling oil prices and a failed investment strategy. At the time, it was believed only Al Jazeera America, which was launched after the purchase of former U.S. vice president Al Gore’s Current TV station, would be protected from the cuts.

However, despite the network’s statement, the Islamist-sympathizer never gained much traction with the American news consumer, recently publishing a widely discredited story accusing Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning of purchasing and using performance enhancing drugs–or, human growth hormone (HGH).

Despite spending more than $600 million (£390m) launching into the U.S. market in 2013, Al Jazeera’s prime-time ratings only range from 20,000 to 30,000 viewers, according to Nielsen data. Upon taking over the network in May 2015, Al Anstey, Al Jazeera America’s chief executive downplayed the network’s ratings woes, saying it would “take time to build viewership.”

“I know the closure of AJAM will be a massive disappointment for everyone here who has worked tirelessly for our long-term future,” Anstey reportedly wrote in a memo to staffers. “The decision that has been made is in no way because AJAM has done anything but a great job.”

The network also said it will be shifting its resources and focus on digital content in the U.S. as it shuts down its television news channel.

After spending more than $600 million to

Video

Video footage taken from various cellphones show the beating and burning of an innocent Afghan woman accused of burning the so-called Holy Quran. The New York Times video exposing the unjust, barbaric murder of Farkhunda Malikzada, a 27-year-old aspiring student of Islam, is just the latest evidence against the bogus moderate Muslim myth.

Worth noting, a few days later the religious authorities declared that she did not commit the alleged crime. Worse still, according to The New York Times, men using their male-dominant advantage given to them by Islam, killed Malikzada to cover up what they had done, themselves.

“Unlike so many abuses against Afghan women that unfold in private, this killing in March prompted a national outcry,” the report said. “For Farkhunda had not burned a Quran. Instead, an investigation found, she had confronted men who were themselves dishonoring the shrine by trafficking in amulets and, more clandestinely, Viagra and condoms.”

Another video obtained by PPD just a few weeks ago shows another Afghan woman being stoned to death in a brutal honor killing. In Afghanistan, a central front in the U.S. War on Terror, stoning has been declared illegal. However, it is practiced extrajudicially–clearly openly–and according to Sharia, or Islamic law. Rajm (stoning) is described as punishment in multiple hadiths–-Shi’a sayings can be found in Kitab al-Kafi, while Sunni sayings can be found in the Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim-–but the method in the video is telling.

Farkhunda was also burned, as was the case with the Jordanian pilot captured, held and ultimately executed by the Islamic State (ISIS), because she is considered a believer and a traitor. That’s the prescription for traitors in Islamic Law, whether it offends our sensibilities or the boundaries of political correctness, or not.

For those of you still willing to turn a blind eye or believe the crowd isn’t representative of most Muslims in the Middle East, think again. In Afghanistan, 99% of Muslims support Sharia being the law of the land over secular law. In America, roughly 54% of Muslims in the U.S. agree, and would toss the Constitution in the garbage, where Farkhunda pleaded she found the Holy Quran. Here’s how the rest of the Middle East stacks up:

Sharia-Law-Support-by-Muslim-Country

“The numbers are right here for all to see. It’s time for an honest conversation about one of the most important issues of our time,” Raheel Raza, a female Sunni Muslim and true human rights advocate recently said. “By silencing the debate about radical Islamists’ beliefs we abandon our own core beliefs of truth, free speech and tolerance. And we abandon human rights in favor of political correctness. Together we have begun the conversation. Now it’s time for you to have your say.”

Join the Conversation. It is, indeed, time for you to have your say.

Video footage taken from various cellphones show

World

USS-Harry-S-Truman

Aircraft Carrier U.S.S. Harry S. Truman steams underway on March 29, 2003 in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. U.S. Navy / Getty Images File

DEVELOPING: The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Navy (IRCGN) on Wednesday released the 10 U.S. Navy sailors whom were detained after two Riverine boats drifted into Iranian territorial waters, a statement broadcast on state TV initially reported.

It was not clear whether the two countries had made any specific arrangement to secure the sailors’ release, but Secretary of State John Kerry thanked Iranian authorities in a written statement “for their cooperation ‎in swiftly resolving this matter.”

The incident this week comes on the heels of an incident in late December when the IRCGN conducted what U.S. officials called a “highly provocative” live-fire rocket test next to the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier. In fact, a Pentagon official told Fox News that the sailors were initially taken to the guided-missile cruiser USS Anzio before flying to the aircraft carrier for additional debriefing.

“The first concern is the safety and well being of the crew and then we will investigate the incident,” the official said. The Pentagon statement also promised the Navy would “investigate the circumstances that led to the Sailors’ presence in Iran.”

However, it remains unclear how the Iranians were able to take control of the boats. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican presidential candidate, said the detention of the sailor’s was a “manifestation of the weakness of Obama’s foreign policy.”

“Our enemies don’t fear us,” Cruz said, adding that his prayers were with the sailors and their families.

The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Navy (IRCGN) released

Economy

Barack-Obama-Jobs-Labor-Force

Job seekers, left, applying for weekly jobless benefits at a state-run job fair. President Barack Obama, right, delivers his final State of the Union address on Tuesday, January 12, 2015.(Photos: Reuters/Evan Vucci/Pool/PPD)

I normally enjoy working for the Cato Institute since it’s a principled and effective organization.

But every so often, my job requires an unpleasant task, and watching the State-of-the-Union Address as part of Cato’s live-tweeting program counts as one my least enjoyable experiences since joining the team.

But let’s make lemonade out of lemons by looking at lessons that can be learned from Obama’s speech. The most jarring part of the evening was when Obama bragged about the American economy.

Since we’re suffering through the weakest recovery since the Great Depression, that was rather bizarre.

Moreover, being proud that we’re doing better than Europe is akin to getting a participation ribbon in a soccer league for kids.

And the chest thumping about the unemployment rate was very misplaced since that piece of data only looks good because so many Americans have given up on finding a job.

I’ve pontificated on that issue before and cited the Labor Department’s overall data, but let’s dig a little deeper to fully understand why Obama should have apologized rather than patted himself on the back.

ALSO READ — December Jobs Report Easily Beats Expectations, Wages Stagnant

Here’s the employment/population ratio for the prime, working-age population of those between 25 and 54 years of age.

Labor Force Statistics: Employment-Population Ratio

As you can see, this ratio has improved a bit over the past five years, but it appears that there’s very little hope that the overall employment situation will ever recover to where it was before the recession.

At least not with current policies.

Here’s another way of looking at the same data. It’s labor force participation by age. The lines don’t seem that far apart, but a 3-4 percentage point decline across age groups adds up to millions of people no longer productively employed.

Employment Statistics: Labor Force Participation by Age Group

Last but not least, here’s another way of approaching this data.

We have a chart from the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank showing the number of working-age people not in the labor force.

There are two takeaways from this chart. First, it’s clear that the problem started well before Obama. But it’s also clear that the problem has gotten much worse during his tenure.

The bottom line is that the expansion of redistribution programs has lured more and more people out of the labor force, particularly when matched by government policies that have hindered the private sector’s ability to create jobs.

So, you’ll understand why I cited labor-force participation (along with stagnant household income) as Obama’s real legacy in this interview.

[brid video=”24671″ player=”2077″ title=”Dan Mitchell Commenting on Obama’ Dismal Economic Legacy (and the Cruz Birther Controversy)”]

By the way, one of the perils of live TV is that you sometimes get curve balls. And since the Ted Cruz birther controversy is now big news, I was asked my opinion even though I don’t have the slightest competency to discuss the issue.

Sort of like the time I went on a program for the ostensible purpose of discussing trade and wound up trapped in a discussion on America’s relationship with North Korea.

My only regret from yesterday’s interview is that I wasn’t clever enough to say that I was more worried about Cruz supporting a Canadian-style tax system than I was about Cruz being born in Canada.

P.S. While I’m not happy about Cruz including a value-added tax in his reform proposal, don’t read too much into that grousing since there are warts in the other candidates’ plans as well.

With one exception.

[mybooktable book=”global-tax-revolution-the-rise-of-tax-competition-and-the-battle-to-defend-it” display=”summary” buybutton_shadowbox=”true”]

President Barack Obama's economic legacy and record

Video

[brid video=”24624″ player=”2077″ title=”Ted Cruz on Obama’s SOTU It Was Less a State of the Union Than a State of Denial”]

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz reacted to President Obama’s final State of the Union by saying he was in a state of denial during an interview on NBC with Lester Holt. Cruz repeated the line to reporters throughout the night on and off television.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz reacted to President

People's Pundit Daily
You have %%pigeonMeterAvailable%% free %%pigeonCopyPage%% remaining this month. Get unlimited access and support reader-funded, independent data journalism.

Start a 14-day free trial now. Pay later!

Start Trial

Subscribe