Treasury yields reach 2-month high after jobs report

Treasury prices dropped on Friday, pushing yields to their highest in almost two months, after a government report said that last month the U.S. economy lost the fewest jobs since last August and the unemployment rate unexpectedly declined.

The data added to evidence that the worst of the recession has passed and encouraged investors to seek assets that are riskier than Treasurys.

"Today's report marks another point of progress back towards normalcy," said Scot Johnson, senior client portfolio manager at Invesco Worldwide Fixed Income. "Riskier assets are performing better so investors will require higher yields on Treasurys." (more)

The Wall Street Journal Asia August 7-9 2009

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Goldseek.com Radio with Jim Sinclair

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Dismal Unemployment Situation In Chart Form

The last three recessions are unlike the eight preceding recessions. For numerous reasons described below we are heading for another job loss recovery.
If the pattern holds, unemployment will rise until 2011 or beyond. Moreover, take a look at the first chart again. Odds of a double dip recession similar to 1980-1982 are high after whatever inventory rebuilding and bottom fishing in housing ends.
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Oil Set for New High in 2009, Barclays Says: Technical Analysis

Crude oil is set to rise above $74 a barrel in New York, passing this year’s high, after prices formed an “inside bar” pattern, according to technical analysts at Barclays Capital.

The highest and lowest prices on Aug. 4 were within the trading range of the previous day, a formation on a candlestick chart known as an “inside bar” that usually indicates the continuation of a price trend, Barclays analyst MacNeil Curry said in a telephone interview from New York yesterday. A narrowing gap between monthly contracts of Brent crude and a “positive macro backdrop” lend support, he said. (more)

Peter Schiff on Countdown: More Trouble Ahead? - 08/5/09

In Goldman Sachs We Trust: The Story of a $222 Stock going to $1 During the Great Depression

As we look over the masters of the universe on Wall Street with Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs only two remain standing and no longer in their previous form. Yet in the midst of all this turmoil, the storied Goldman Sachs is still churning out the profits. A recent report by Bloomberg shows that Goldman Sachs made more than $100 million on trading revenue on get this, 46 separate days during the second quarter. This is rather unbelievable in the midst of the deepest recession since the Great Depression. The spotlight in recent months is squarely on the Wall Street giant and is probably not the kind of PR they are looking for. (more)

U.S. food stamp list tops 34 million for first time

For the first time, more than 34 million Americans received food stamps in May, the government said on Thursday, another symptom of the longest and one of the deepest recessions since the Great Depression.

Enrollment surged by 2 percent to reach a record 34.4 million people, or one in nine Americans, in the latest month for which figures are available.

It was the sixth month in a row that enrollment set a record. Every state recorded a gain, and Florida had the largest increase at 4.2 percent. (more)

THE PUBLIC OPTION IN BANKING: HOW WE CAN BEAT WALL STREET AT ITS OWN GAME

In Wall Street’s latest affront to the public trust, the nine mega-banks graced with $125 billion in taxpayer bailout money under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) were reported last week to be paying out billions of dollars in bonuses to their executives. At least 4,793 bankers and traders received more than $1 million each in bonus payments, although it was one of Wall Street’s worst years on record. After months of investigating banker compensation, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said on July 30, “The repeated explanation from bank executives that bonuses are tied to performance in a manner designed to promote (national economic) growth does not appear to be accurate.” (more)