01.07.11
From the Daily Torment Desk
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sketched a more optimistic outlook for the economy, but said a $600 billion bond-buying program is needed because it will take up to five more years to bring unemployment back to healthy levels.
Bernanke told the Senate Budget Committee that there’s increasing evidence that a “self-sustaining” recovery is taking hold. He said he expects stronger economic growth because consumers and businesses will boost spending this year.
Bernanke spoke one hour after the government released a disappointing employment report. Employers added only 103,000 jobs in December. The unemployment rate fell to 9.4 percent partly because people gave up looking for jobs.
And, from the same wire, with only a different title:
But the job growth fell short of expectations based on a strengthening economy. And the drop in unemployment was partly because people stopped looking for work.
Private employers added a net total of 113,000 jobs last month and the government shed 10,000 jobs, the Labor Department said Friday.
“The labor market ended last year with a bit of a thud,” [opined some fellow from Moody’s]. “But I think things will get much better this year.”
Why would people stop looking for work?
Roseanne Barr on CNN this week: “There are no jobs.”
But there are, apparently at Goldman and other financial institutions, if you’re the right god’s work-doing superman, one who can answer interview questions of dubious nature. Presumably chosen to winnow out only the best and brightest, according to a weekly Yahoo news feature on job-seeking and the best tactics in bowing and scraping:
If you were shrunk to the size of a pencil and trapped in a blender, how would you get out? — Goldman Sachs
Why do you think only a small portion of the population makes over $150,000? (Reportedly from New York Life)
How are M&Ms made? (Reportedly from USBank)
The article (no link) — which can be looked up in Google — avers that interview questions could just be troll bait from an Internet poll.