Only 11,000 jobs were lost, so that is supposed to be good news for the economy, if not the 11,000 people who had those jobs. It is better than the numbers that have been reported for a couple of years now, but it doesn’t include the jobs that weren’t created for the holiday season, just like there was no report of the jobs that are normally created for the start of school, but weren’t this year.

They claim that the employment rate fell to 10%, but that probably shows that more people have given up looking.

Of course, Congress will claim there is no reason for a jobs bill, even though more jobs are going to be lost as the effect of first stimulus bill wears off, and the bounce to replace inventory prior to the holiday season ends. Things are not really getting better, and that will be apparent soon enough.

2010 World Cup draw

• Group A: South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, France
• Group B: Argentina, South Korea, Nigeria, Greece
• Group C: England, USA, Algeria, Slovenia
• Group D: Germany, Australia, Ghana, Serbia
• Group E: Netherlands, Japan, Cameroon, Denmark
• Group F: Italy, New Zealand, Paraguay, Slovakia
• Group G: Brazil, North Korea, Ivory Coast, Portugal
• Group H: Spain, Honduras, Chile, Switzerland

Group G looks nasty, but the US has a good chance to advance.

Chilling Out

No more about Moscow!

[Editor: It might be 5° warmer than Moscow, but the koshki and koty are not happy campers. Sox is attempting to absorb as much heat from the electric radiator as possible. For those wondering: Income, Excise, Sox, Dot, Property, with Ringo in the back.]

Friday Ark