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Grill cleaning at the Bonddad household.

See you on Tuesday, not Monday.

- by New Deal democrat

On Labor Day weekend, let us remember and vow to assist the 8 million workers who have been thrown out of their jobs since the beginning of the Great Recession, and to continue to press for policies thaat will get them all back to work. Bonddad had an extremely good idea earlier this week.

- by New Deal democrat

I last blogged about Mish's accidental bottom ticking in early July, saying that The Emperor of Doom wears no Clothes, shredding his claim that retail sales gains were a mirage because, allegedly, state sales tax returns were still declining. Here's what he said then:

From the BLS:

The duration of employment numbers were interesting:

Less than 5 weeks: -79,000
5-14 weeks: + 575,000
15-26 weeks: + 84,000
27 + weeks: -323,000

The increase in the 5-14 weeks is probably caused by the recent increase in initial unemployment claims. The decrease in the 27 + weeks in also interesting. However, at the current pace of job creation this months decrease will eventually move higher as the people who increased the 5-14 weeks number move out the time line.

In addition, we have the following revisions:

From the BLS:

Nonfarm payroll employment changed little (-54,000) in August, and the unemployment rate was about unchanged at 9.6 percent, the U.S. Bureau of LaborStatistics reported today. Government employment fell, as 114,000 temporaryworkers hired for the decennial census completed their work. Private-sector payroll employment continued to trend up modestly (+67,000)

Let's start with the household survey.

Let's turn our attention to loan quality: Insured institutions added $40.3 billion in provisions to their loan-loss allowances in the second quarter. While still high by historic standards, this is the smallest total since the industry set aside $37.2 billion in first quarter 2008 and is $27.1 billion (40.2 percent) less than the industry’s provisions in second quarter 2009. Fewer than half of all institutions (41.3 percent) reported year-over-year reductions in quarterly loss provisions.

The FDIC released the quarterly banking profile several days ago. Today I want to delve into this very important report and highlight important development in the industry. Let's start with earnings: Reductions in loan-loss provisions underscored improvement in asset quality indicators during second quarter 2010. The industry’s quarterly earnings of $21.6 billion are up dramatically from the year-ago loss of $4.4 billion and represent the highest quarterly earnings since third quarter 2007.

- by New Deal democrat

Via Economist's View, here is commentary by Karl Case in the New York Times: