Finance Matters

Archive for January 10th, 2010

This chart from Calculated Risk shows the decline in jobs as a percentage of the work force at the peak. 

To date in this recession, we’ve lost more than 8 million jobs.  The decline as a percentage of the workforce is the worst since the Great Depression, matching the sharp but short drop in 1948, as the war machine wound down. 

Equally important, the duration of these job losses, as well as the lack of a sharp recovery (at least so far), suggests that the problem will be with us for a long while.  We’re now 24 months into this decline, and we’re still at the bottom.  By this point in most previous recessions, we had already recovered all of the lost jobs.

Here’s Calculated Risk:

This graph shows the job losses from the start of the employment recession, in percentage terms (as opposed to the number of jobs lost). The current employment recession is the worst recession since WWII in percentage terms, and 2nd worst in terms of the unemployment rate (only early ’80s recession with a peak of 10.8 percent was worse).

Note: The total jobs lost does not include the annual benchmark payroll revision that will be announced on February 5, 2010. The preliminary estimate is for a downward revision of 824,000 jobs – pushing the total jobs lost over 8 million.

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See Also:

• We Didn’t Lose 85,000 Jobs, We Lost 1 Million
• CHART OF THE DAY: How The Government Payroll Replaced Goods-Producing Jobs
• 15 Ways To Blow Your Job Interview

Goodbye Harry Reid.

A new book reveals that in the run-up to the 2008 election, Senate majority leader Harry Reid said Obama had a chance of winning because he was both “light-skinned” and didn’t speak with a “negro dialiect.”

Reid has apologized, and Obama has accepted, but this isn’t very hard to figure out. Harry Reid is toast.

Reid is already disliked in his home state of Nevada, and this just clinches it.

He claims he’s “absolutely” running for his re-election, but his poll numbers are just awful. Watch for him to pull a Chris Dodd.

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See Also:

• DEMOCRAT CARNAGE: Chris Dodd, Byron Dorgan Leaving The Senate
• Democrats Are Actually Really, Really Glad Chris Dodd Has Dropped Out Of The Race
• SHOCK: Poll Has GOP Candidate Now Leading In Massachusetts Senate Race

Jeff Gaspin, chairman of NBCU television, has come out and said the network is moving Leno back to 11:35, Conan be damned.

Speaking to reporters this afternoon he said, “I can confirm, starting Feb. 12, The Jay Leno Show will no longer air at 10 p.m.,” according to Michael Ausiello at Entertainment Weekly.

He added, “While [Leno] was performing at acceptable levels for the network, it did not meet our affiliates’ needs, and we realized we had to make a change. My goal right now is to keep Jay, Conan [O'Brien], and Jimmy [Fallon] as part of our late-night lineup. I have spoken to all of them and proposed that The Jay Leno Show move to 11:35, The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien to 12:05, and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon would then start at 1:05.”

Will Conan play ball? It’s all up in the air right now, but on Friday FOX started signaling it might want Conan.

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See Also:

• Fox Flirts With Conan After NBC Publicly Humiliates Him
• Leno Might Get Half-Hour Show, With Conan And Fallon To Follow
• Whoa! NBC May Dump Conan For Leno

Reuters has already gotten a load of negative press for spiking a Steve Cohen story after the SAC Capital founder called and asked them not to print it.

The decision was apparently the editor in chief’s, David Schlesinger’s. He says he chose not to run the story based “editorial” judgement, but his flustered performance on a recent conference call with Reuters reporters suggests otherwise.

Now Talking Biz News has gotten a hold of a memo Reuters’ global news editor Jack Reerink sent around on Friday:

Tip of the week – Ethics 101
Psst.. Did you hear that we killed a bombshell story about hedge fund king Stevie Cohen the other week? It happened right after a conference call between Stevie, Devin Wenig, David Schlesinger and myself. Here’s a recording I secretly made ( I know you’re not supposed to do that without asking permission, but I figured it was important. I’m not very ethical.)

Sidebar, he’s clearly referring to the recording someone made of the conference call Reuters held with its reporters. Surely Schlesinger didn’t know he was being recorded.

Devin: Stevie, you’re a nice guy. We’re nice guys. If you don’t like the story, just ask David and Jack not to run it. It’s their call. I’ve got nothing to do with Editorial.

Stevie: OK, I would really appreciate it if you guys don’t put out a story that’s supposedly going to rock my world

Me: Say ‘Please.’

Stevie: Please.

Me: Well, what do you think, David? I’d say: Kill it.

David: I wanna hear ‘please’ one more time.

Stevie: Please.

David: Louder, please.

Stevie: PLEASE.

Me: OK, that settles it. It’s a kill. We’re gonna get some flak. But that’s OK. Stevie’s a nice guy.

Me: By the way, Stevie, my TDAmeritrade account is 39…

We’re sure this went over very well with all the angry Reuters reporters wondering if top brass is selling themout.

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See Also:

• Reuters Employees Get In Trouble For Telling Blogs That Their Boss Killed A Steve Cohen Story
• Reuters Denies Spiking Stevie Cohen Insider Trading Story Due To Pressure
• Stevie Cohen Gets Reuters To Kill An Insider Trading Story

Major retailers have experienced a bumper festive season but the British Retail Consortium (BRC) is warning the High Street not to be bullish as a “very tough” 12 months is in store.
Last week, British retailing giant, Marks and Spencer, reported its first sales growth in over two years.
The 125-year-old retailer which sells clothes, food and [...]