The US lost 54,000 jobs in August, which is 46,000 less than the consensus had expected. The all important private sector added 67,000 new jobs (27K more than expected) and the "official" unemployment rate edged up to 9.6%. It is great that the private sector found a reason to hire 67,000 people. We should not lose sight however of the big picture here. Three years after the 2007 recession started, the US economy is still losing (not adding) jobs.

Job creation in this "recovery" is tragically low. In fact 1 in 6 Americans are now receiving some form of financial assistance from the government to exist:



Bond markets are closing early at 1pm today, and so far the jobs euphoria is putting the long bond on offer. In truth long bonds rallied so far so fast over the past couple of weeks, there is breathing room for a pull back here without breaking the bond uptrend



We suspect this week's relief rally in risk assets, based on a couple of less bad reports, may not yet be durable. Stay tuned.   more »

"The process of de-leveraging has to continue."



Also here he is on Bloomberg with more.   more »