The 'headline numbers' for the Non-Farm Payrolls came in better than expected.
Gold and silver held their places well, and especially silver which is now the lead sled dog for my thinking.
I took a look at them and did not see anything brazenly out of line. Except of course that it is not the number of jobs being added, unless you are some metric toting bureaucrat trying to hit some number as a symbolic victory.
No, it is all about the quality of the jobs, especially the median wage and personal income, as it feeds to the kind of mass organic buying that boosts and sustains aggregate demand.
I noticed that some of the Neo-Keynesians ('neo' in the sense that Keynes would probably throw up at their distortions of his thought in their slavishness obeisance to money printing and government spending of any sort and effect as stimulus) have been launching their flaccid attacks on the evil Austrians.
Now, as you may know, I am certainly no Austrian economist and have quite a bit of respect for Keynes himself if not his acolytes, but the way in which the Neo-Keynesians are rallying around their flag causes me to suspect that things behind the curtain are not going well, and that they are afraid. Not that this makes the Austrians right with their love affair with tough economic love (for others less worthy, especially those of the lower classes as they would define them).
Obviously setting public policy principles top down and then doing things to achieve them directly would be the thing to do, but alas, that all gets lost in the noise and the humbug of modern thinking, especially the thought for pay so prevalent these days amongst the disgraced professions.
July may still prove to be an interesting month, and I suspect that before the year end we will see some pet economic theories in addition to the efficient market hypothesis shot to hell.
For the Yanks, have a pleasant holiday weekend.
And for the rest of the world, please try to carry on.
See you Sunday evening. Remember the poor souls who have none to love or care for them. You may some day find yourself amongst them.
