Who's panicking?
by digby
Here's a shock:
Employers added 155,000 jobs last month, nearly matching the average for the year. December's steady job gain suggests employers didn't cut back on hiring in the midst of the debate over the tax and spending changes known as the fiscal cliff. Many economists feared that the prospect of higher taxes and steep cuts in federal spending would cause a slowdown in job gains.
The whining of CEOs and Wall Street big wigs about "fiscal responsibility" and their fearmongering about "expectations" and "confidence" has been shown over and over again to be total rubbish. And yet over and over again, the Village media laps up their nonsense as if it was handed down directly from God.
As we go into the next round, the shrieking is going get much louder because the real economic ramifications of default are much higher. But the I'm going to guess that "the markets" will keep their "heads" much better than the media. They always have.
I will, however, be interested to see how the markets react to a real austerity deal if that's how the whole thing goes down in the end. Considering how well that's been going in Europe, I'd guess they won't be entirely enthusiastic.
*As for the jobs number, they're not bad. Hiring seems to be slowly but surely chugging along. It's not enough to revive this economy but it's enough to make the politicians refuse to do anything about it. Purrrrfect.
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