Reply #6: Mixed Emotions...

[KharmaTrain]

This number is good considering that there's a natural drop off in jobs between December and January and then stabilizes in February before rising again in March. So on the surface, the "bleeding" has stopped and what losses are now occuring are "seaonal" or incidental; not the large drop we saw the past two years.

The bad part is the economy remains stagnant...there are few signs that the credit crunch is letting up and money to fuel new businesses and jobs can flow. If anything, there are signs that the worst still lies ahead...the banks and government are frantically kicking cans down the road to prop up the markets. Commercial and personal defaults remain a serious problem and as long as people and businesses face bankruptcy, you can't expect an economy to grow.

The problem remains the banks and government prefer to paper over the fundamental corruption of the economy and do so at all of our peril, including their own.