News Story of the Day: are we seeing signs of a recession? After the latest jobs report, we may be on the verge of the bust cycle.
The United States economy added just 98,000 jobs in March, far below the initial forecast of 158,000. This is the fewest amount of jobs created since May, and perhaps a signal that President Donald Trump won’t necessarily be the greatest jobs president in the nation’s history.
Meanwhile, the labor force participation rate held steady at 63 percent and wages rose a tepid five cents.
Chart of the Day: year after year, retail stores close their doors because all of the shoppers are heading online. In the words of Peter Schiff, the retail has bubble has finally popped. Here is a look at ecommerce sales since the year 2000 (courtesy of the American Enterprise Institute):
Illustration of the Day: who knew that you can gain so much support from the media if you start bombing countries that did not attack you? If that was the case, Donald Trump should have run on a platform of nuking every nation on the planet then you would have gotten Don Lemon, Fareed Zakaria and Jake Tapper happier than a fat kid at an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet..
Quote of the Day: one of the most hated quotes in libertarian circles is President John F. Kennedy’s “…what you can do for your country…” Ugh. Here is legendary free market economist Milton Friedman criticizing the quote:
“In a much quoted passage in his inaugural address, President Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.” It is a striking sign of the temper of our times that the controversy about this passage centered on its origin and not on its content. Neither half of the statement expresses a relation between the citizen and his government that is worthy of the ideals of free men in a free society. The paternalistic “what your country can do for you” implies that government is the patron, the citizen the ward, a view that is at odds with the free man’s belief in his own responsibility for his own destiny. The organismic, “what you can do for your country” implies that government is the master or the deity, the citizen, the servant or the votary. To the free man, the country is the collection of individuals who compose it, not something over and above them. He is proud of a common heritage and loyal to common traditions. But he regards government as a means, an instrumentality, neither a grantor of favors and gifts, nor a master or god to be blindly worshiped and served. He recognizes no national goal except as it is the consensus of the goals that the citizens severally serve. He recognizes no national purpose except as it is the consensus of the purposes for which the citizens severally strive.”
Video of the Day: the war on the new media is only going to escalate further. Thanks to the likes of Wall Street Journal, advertisers are pulling their ads from YouTube videos because they are supposedly objectionable. Although these companies claim it is racist, violent and offensive content is the reason, there is likely something more nefarious at play. 1791L does a great job connecting the dots in the video embedded below:
8% of retail sales go to on-line and that is going to kill brick and mortar? What is kill some of these retailers is they can no longer ripoff the consumer, anyone with a phone or a computer to check for the best price is saving money. High prices, having too many locations and not closing under performing stores early, is what is killing many B&M operations, not ecommerce. Many of the so called ecommerce sales are on B&M store websites that will keep B&M alive for years to come.