WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. job growth slowed in August, but the unemployment rate dropped to a near 7-1/2-year low and wages accelerated, keeping alive prospects of a Federal Reserve interest rate hike later this month.
Nonfarm payrolls increased 173,000 last month after an upwardly revised gain of 245,000 in July, the Labor Department said on Friday. August’s gain was the smallest in five months as the factory sector lost the most jobs since July 2013.
The jobs count, however, may have been tarnished by a statistical fluke that has often led to sharp upward revisions to payroll figures for August after initial weak readings.
Indicating the hiring slowdown was likely not reflective of the economy’s true health, the jobless rate fell two-tenths of a point to 5.1 percent, its lowest level since April 2008.
In addition, payrolls data for June and July were revised to show 44,000 more jobs created than previously reported, bringing the average job gains for the past three months to a solid 221,000. Average hourly earnings increased 8 cents, the biggest rise in seven months and the length of the average workweek also expanded.
(CNSNews.com) – A record 94,031,000 Americans were not in the American labor force last month — 261,000 more than July — and the labor force participation rate stayed stuck at 62.6 percent, a 38-year low, for a third straight month in August, the Labor Department reported on Friday, as the nation heads into the Labor Day weekend.
The number of Americans not in the labor force has continued to rise, partly because of retiring baby-boomers and fewer workers entering the workforce.
In August, according to BLS, the nation’s civilian noninstitutional population, consisting of all people 16 or older who were not in the military or an institution, reached 251,096,000. Of those, 157,065,000 participated in the labor force by either holding a job or actively seeking one.
The 157,065,000 who participated in the labor force equaled only 62.6 percent of the 251,096,000 civilian noninstitutional population — the same as it was in July and June. Not since October 1977, when the participation rate dropped to 62.4, has the percentage been this low.
By Kellan Howell – The Washington Times – Wednesday, September 2, 2015
A group of former top military officials and intelligence analysts released a new report Wednesday concluding that the nuclear deal with Iran will threaten American interests and increase the probability of military conflict in the Middle East.
In its report, the Iran Strategy Council wrote that the nuclear deal, called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), “will enable Iran to increase support for terrorist and insurgent proxies, aggravate sectarian conflict and trigger both nuclear and conventional proliferation cascades.”
Additionally, the deal will “provide the expansionist regime in Tehran with access to resources, technology and international arms markets required to bolster offensive military capabilities in the vital Persian Gulf region, acquire long-range ballistic missiles and develop other major weapons systems,” the council wrote.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani vowed that the Islamic Republic would violate outstanding United Nations restrictions governing the country’s ballistic missile program and that the behavior would not violate the recent nuclear accord, according to a translation of the leader’s remarks performed by the CIA’s Open Source Center.
Iran is “not committed to the restrictions on its missile program,” according to a recent comment made by Rouhani, who said a violation of international restrictions would not impact the nuclear accord recently reached with global powers.
“We have formally announced that we are not committed to these provisions [related to missiles] mentioned in [the] U.N. resolution,” Rouhani was quoted as saying in an Aug. 29 Persian language speech broadcast on Iran’s state-controlled television networks.
It is written into the nuclear accord that a violation of U.N. bans on Iran’s missile program will not impact the deal.
By AIMEE PICCHI MONEYWATCH September 1, 2015, 5:15 AM
By one dismal measure, America is joining the likes of Third World countries.
The number of U.S. residents who are struggling to survive on just $2 a day has more than doubled since 1996, placing 1.5 million households and 3 million children in this desperate economic situation. That’s according to “$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America,” a book from publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt that will be released on Sept. 1.
The measure of poverty isn’t arbitrary — it’s the threshold the World Bank uses to measure global poverty in the developed world. While it may be the norm to see families in developing countries such as Bangladesh and Ethiopia struggle to survive on such meager income, the growing ranks of America’s ultrapoor may be shocking, given that the U.S. is considered one of the most developed capitalist countries in the world.
“Most of us would say we would have trouble understanding how families in the county as rich as ours could live on so little,” said author Kathryn Edin, who spoke on a conference call to discuss the book, which she wrote with Luke Shaefer. Edin is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University. “These families, contrary to what many would expect, are workers, and their slide into poverty is a failure of the labor market and our safety net, as well as their own personal circumstances.”
To be sure, the labor market has been rocky for many Americans, not just the poorest. But changes in how employers deal with their low-wage workers have hit many of these poor Americans especially hard, such as the rise of on-call scheduling, which leaves some parents scrambling for hours and dealing with unpredictable pay.
Retailers such as Walmart (WMT) and fast-food companies increasingly are using sophisticated scheduling software that allows them to tinker with work schedules at the last minute, depending on their stores’ needs. That reduces costs for the employer, but it can make life difficult for employees, especially those with children and dependents.
Alan Gomez, USA TODAY12:08 a.m. EDT September 2, 2015
More than half of the nation’s immigrants receive some kind of government welfare, a figure that’s far higher than the native-born population, according to a report to be released Wednesday.
About 51% of immigrant-led households receive at least one kind of welfare benefit, including Medicaid, food stamps, school lunches and housing assistance, compared to 30% for native-led households, according to the report from the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that advocates for lower levels of immigration.
Those numbers increase for households with children, with 76% of immigrant-led households receiving welfare, compared to 52% for the native-born.
The findings are sure to fuel debate on the presidential campaign trail as Republican candidates focus on changing the nation’s immigration laws, from calls for mass deportations to ending birthright citizenship.
Steven Camarota, director of research at center and author of the report, said that’s a much-needed conversation to make the country’s immigration system more “selective.”
“This should not be understood as some kind of defect or moral failing on the part of immigrants,” Camarota said about the findings. “Rather, what it represents is a system that allows a lot of less-educated immigrants to settle in the country, who then earn modest wages and are eligible for a very generous welfare system.
AUGUST 26, 2015 LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY JOHN C. ENSSLIN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
Rep. Scott Garrett told a Tea Party audience in Wyckoff on Tuesday that he opposes the proposed nuclear arms agreement with Iran but said stopping the deal will be difficult under the rules that the Senate has adopted.
Garrett, R-Wantage, said he considers the agreement reached by the Obama administration to be a treaty that ought to require two-thirds approval by the Senate.
But he said a majority of his colleagues still consider it an executive action by the president.
Under the rules adopted, it would require a two-thirds majority of both the Senate and the House to disapprove the deal after a 60-day review period.
“The burden of proof has shifted from them to us,” Garrett said of the rules.
As an executive action, the agreement could be undone by the next president, Garrett said.
“But the problem with that is that the next president will not be here for another 16 or 17 months,” Garrett told a crowd of about 70 people gathered at a forum hosted by the West Bergen Tea Party.
While talk of the Iran deal dominated most of the evening, the mostly receptive audience also peppered Garrett with other questions on topics ranging from the GOP leadership in the House to trade agreements and housing discrimination legislation.
None of the questions dealt with presidential politics or the race for the Republican nomination.
Wyckoff NJ, Its been asked over and over by every New Jersey editorial board ,will voters remember N.J. Rep. Scott Garrett’s supposed, anonymously sourced Speaker Bohner planted gay comments next fall?
The answer was heard loud and clear today and in meetings like it all over the state. Garrett spoke before a packed house at the WBTP and question after question was about a Nuclear Iran, TPP, TPA, and so on but not one single question about the anonymously attributed “gay ” comments , not one. Apparently Iranians shouting death to America and being handed nuclear weapons by our government , held sway over silly Republican intramural politics .
Last night Garrett spoke before the West Bergen Tea Party meeting in Wyckoff which looked like a who’s who in North Jersey Republican Politics including Bob Yudin of BCRO and Paul DiGaetano .
Garrett took some heat for Republican failures to achieve any meaning for change in the disastrous direction the country is headed ,after which he reminded the crowd that he was just one person and will vote against the Iran Nuke deal , had voted against Obamacare, voted to with hold TPA from the president , and had voted against speaker Bohners leadership .
Garrett took it one step further when explained that he and 8 other house members, now grown to 50 that had started a caucus in the house which looked to push a more constitutional based agenda for the house. Garrett seemed even more frustrated than members of the audience with the current political situation and suggested the House could use the power of the purse to defund the Iran deal .
Peter Schiff Warns “The Fed Is Spooking The Markets, Not China”
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/24/2015 – 16:35
The correction may soon morph into a full-fledged bear market if the Fed makes good on its supposed intentions to raise interest rates this year. Have no illusions, while most market observers are quick to blame the sell-off on China, this market was given life by the Fed, and the Fed is the only force that will keep it alive. Unfortunately for the Fed, it won’t be able to get away with doing nothing for too much longer. Events may soon force it to show its hand. Then perhaps some may notice that the Fed is holding absolutely nothing and has been bluffing the entire time.
U.S. stocks closed near session lows on Thursday, off more than 2 percent, as investors weighed continued uncertainty about the timing of a rate hike and concerns about global growth headed by slowing in China.
The S&P 500 and Dow Jones industrial average both had their worst day since Feb. 3, 2014. ( Tweet This )
“I think the markets are overly pessimistic,” said Anthony Valeri, investment strategist at LPL Financial. “I think this sentiment is panicking over news from China, the Fed (and) oil at six-year lows.”
Weakening in emerging market currencies on the heels of China’s yuan devaluation last week added to worries of broad economic slowdown.
“I think the oil and the geopolitical problems are the real problems for the market because we’re looking at lower global economic growth, and lower global growth is going to weigh on the U.S. as well,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital.
The S&P 500 fell into the red for 2015 and closed down 1.1 percent for the year. Consumer discretionary led all 10 sectors lower with a decline of 2.8 percent for its worst daily performance since June 1, 2012. Energy is the greatest laggard for the year so far, down more than 18 percent.
Ridgewood NJ, The number of people not in the labor force reached another record high in July, according to new jobs data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The BLS reports that 93,770,000 people (16 and older) were neither employed last month nor had made specific efforts to find work in the prior four weeks.This is an increase of 144,000 over June’s record when 93,626,000 were not in the workforce.
labor force participation rate remained the the same as June at 62.6 percent. Before last month the labor force participation rate had not been that low since October 1977, when the participation rate was 62.4 percent .Despite hovering near the 38 year low. the unemployment rate remained at 5.3 percent suggesting more people were searching for jobs during the 1970’s and the incentive not to work was not as high.
Crumbles by commodities and the Colossus of Cupertino have been getting much of the blame for the stock market slumping in seven of the past 10 sessions.
“If AAPL doesn’t find its footing soon, it may risk a deeper drop,” writes Andrew Nyquist, over at See It Market.
And as goes the largest company by market value, so goes the whole U.S. stock market. Or at least a further slide by Apple would act as a mighty powerful brake on the S&P 500 SPX, -0.05% SPY, -0.06% , where it’s about 4% of the benchmark, and on the growthier Nasdaq 100 NDX, -0.44% QQQ, -0.43% where it’s a 14% chunk.
So, what’s the matter with Apple AAPL, -3.06% ? For the first time since September 2013, the tech giant’s stock has knifed under the closely watched 200-day moving average. Many chart lovers use that as a guide to a stock’s long-term trend.
Also, Apple has entered into what’s often called “correction territory,” by dropping more than 10% from its peak. Go here for more on the iPhone maker’s technicals, from one of MarketWatch’s resident chart nerds, Tomi Kilgore.
Nyquist suggests Apple, which closed at $118.44 on Monday, could tumble into the $109-to-$115 range — an area the tech giant jumped out of in January, after quarterly results crushed forecasts.
Garland shooter bought pistol through ATF’s controversial gun running sting to track drug cartels
BY NICOLE HENSLEY
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Saturday, August 1, 2015, 5:56 PM
A gunman killed during his attack on an Islamic prophet Muhammad art show in Garland, Texas, reportedly bought a pistol through a botched federal firearm sting.
Nadir Soofi bought a 9-mm pistol at a Phoenix gun shop in 2010, one report said, that sold illegal firearms through ATF’s heavily criticized Operation Fast and Furious to track firearms back to Mexican drug cartels.
The Senate Homeland Security Committee wants to know if that same pistol was used five years later in an alleged Islamic State-sanctioned shootout targeting right-wing blogger Pamela Geller’s event, according to a memo obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
The letter is addressed to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch from Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson.
Most Republicans, however, say it will be tough to round up the votes to overthrow the speaker.
By Jake Sherman and Lauren French
7/28/15 6:01 PM EDT
Updated 7/28/15 10:28 PM EDT
North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows had heard from leading conservatives that trying to oust Speaker John Boehner right now was a bad idea.
Reps. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), fierce and frequent critics of leadership, thought the move was ill-advised. Some of Meadows’ friends didn’t even see it coming. But just before 6 p.m. Tuesday — a day before the House was set to leave town for its five-week summer recess — Meadows offered a motion to vacate the chair, an extraordinarily rare procedural move that represents the most serious expression of opposition to Boehner’s speakership. If the motion were to pass — most Republicans say it will be hard to cobble together the votes — Boehner would be stripped of the speaker’s gavel, potentially plunging the House of Representatives into chaos.
GOP leaders were taken completely by surprise. Meadows, a second-term Republican, hadn’t even asked for a meeting with Boehner or other top Republicans to air his gripes.
Until now, the North Carolina Republican had taken small steps to undermine Boehner — he voted against procedural motions and against Boehner for speaker. Now he’s declared all-out war, and he could quickly find out how many people are willing to back him up.
Meadows, however, didn’t go as far as he could have. A motion to vacate the chair — last attempted roughly a century ago — is typically considered a privileged resolution. In that format, the House would hold a vote within two legislative days. Meadows, however, chose not to offer it in that form, which he said was a sign that he wanted a discussion.
After 20 months of negotiations, this week President Obama announced a nuclear arms deal that will give Iran sanctions relief and a path to obtaining a nuclear weapon.
The Iranian regime has done nothing to prove that it has earned the trust or respect of the international community and should not be rewarded with sanctions relief. This deal will only further destabilize an increasingly volatile region.
President Obama asks for this deal to be judged on its original goal and its merits. But it should be judged on the ability to keep weapons out of the hands of a regime that is both a sponsor of terrorism and an enemy of the United States and its allies.
By that standard, it fails horribly.
One of the most imperative aspects of a deal is the ability to verify that Iran is fulfilling its end of the agreement. The president may claim that this deal “is not based on trust; it is built on verification,” but this is not reflected in the actual provisions of the deal. The president himself has stated that a deal must allow for inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) anytime, anywhere. Yet this deal fails to live up to the president’s own standards. Instead it allows Iran to object to inspections and dispute the inspections in front of a resolution panel— a process that can take up to 24 days. This is hardly the spontaneous inspection that will ensure compliance.
Under this deal, Iran is not required to fully dismantle existing bomb making technology. Rather, Iran is allowed to continue its enrichment capabilities. But that becomes almost irrelevant when you consider that in ten short years the United States and its allies will have little ability to ensure that Iran does not obtain nuclear weapons. After a decade, the limits on Iran’s nuclear activities will begin to sunset.
In recent years Iran has involved itself in both regional and sectarian conflicts in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. By lifting the sanctions, billions of dollars in frozen assets will be freed up, and Iran will be rewarded for its bad behavior.
Due to provisions included in the eleventh hour of negotiations, this deal lifts the arms embargo after just five years, and after eight years the restrictions on ballistic missile transfer will be lifted. This will no doubt benefit Russia, who stands to make considerable money by providing missile technology to Iran. The reality for the US and its allies is that lifting this embargo will allow Iran to further support bad actors and terrorism in the region.
President Obama claims that if Iran violates the deal the sanctions will snap back into place. This just isn’t reality. Snapping back the sanctions—as the president claims he will do—will take an act of the same international body that worked on the agreement. It will be out of the hands of this or any other White House.
So where are we now?
Unfortunately, due to a bill that passed in May without my support, Congress’ ability to stop this deal from being implemented is greatly diminished. Instead of requiring a majority of Congress to approve the treaty, the so-called Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015 turns the Constitution on its head and requires Congress to block a treaty. Knowing this, President Obama has already issued a veto threat if Congress tries to block this deal.
Even if Iran abides by all of the provisions in this deal, in 15 years they will be able to proliferate weapons grade nuclear materials and possess ballistic missiles. By implementing this agreement, we will not make the world a safer place; we will essentially start a countdown until this terrorist regime has nuclear weapons.
This is not a political issue; this is an issue of national security for the United States and for our allies around the world. Over the span of the negotiations, 367 Members of Congress from both parties have called upon the president expressing the standards that a final deal must achieve. Yet this deal fails to achieve these standards.
The administration consistently said that a bad deal is worse than no deal, yet it delivered this terrible agreement to the American people. As I’ve said since the beginning of these negotiations, any agreement that allows Iran to acquire, build, or proliferate nuclear weapons—now or in the future—is a threat to the United States and its allies.
