The Employment Situation

Sounds like a new band -- The Employment Situation. But it's only the obtuseness of government data defined as "a set of labor market indicators based on two separate surveys in one report. The unemployment rate equals the number of unemployed persons divided by the total number of persons in the labor force, which comes from a survey of 60,000 households (this is called the household survey). Workers are only counted once, no matter how many jobs they have, or whether they are only working part-time. In order to be counted as unemployed, one must be actively looking for work."

Got that? It's a survey, as in Take Our Word For It. And you're only counted if you're actively looking. Sitting around doing unemployed bong hits in an apartment in Denver means you're invisible, unless you stumble into a McDonald's with the munchies and apply for a job.

The point is the numbers are meaningless and the markets are still nowhere. Asia was mixed, Europe is mixed, and futures are hovering around the flat line seeking direction.

Until the market gets somewhere, I'd rather be elsewhere. Yesterday it was Mystic Brewery in Chelsea, Massachusetts, just over the river from Boston, where they are doing things with their own house-cultivated yeasts that must be tasted to be believed.

Glad they had a tasting menu, because I wanted to try e v e r y t h i n g and still be able to drive home. No probs. Seven 2 oz. tastes didn't even equal a full pint.

Either 1900 gets hit or 1850 breaks or gets retested, but I'm still on the sidelines for a bit. The computer will be ready Monday or thereabouts, after a reinstall of Windows 7 and some new drivers.