Ten months into President Obama's first economic stimulus plan, a surge in spending on roads and bridges has had no effect on local unemployment and only barely helped the beleaguered construction industry, an Associated Press analysis has found.
Spend a lot or spend nothing at all, it didn't matter, the AP analysis showed: Local unemployment rates rose and fell regardless of how much stimulus money Washington poured out for transportation, raising questions about Obama's argument that more road money would address an "urgent need to accelerate job
growth
This is actually a bit surprising because this report measured areas where there actually were projects. That's a sign of the intensity of this thing. It's also a sign that jobs can only improve from something permanent.
Markets are relatively unchanged on the equity side. All three indices are either up or down less than a quarter of a percent. Bonds are also largely unchanged. The ten year U.S. Treasury bond is a little better. That yield is down to 3.81%. The most interesting story developing is with the three month t bill. It had a monster day on Friday. It lost two basis points. (keep in mind it was only paying six basis points) Today, it's currently losing another two. The yield is down to .02% and it may soon challenge negative territory again.
Crude oil has lost a bit this morning. It's down to $82.26 a barrel but that's still a massive gain over the last month or so. Gold continues its move up and it's at $1153 an ounce. That's about $80 an ounce in three or so weeks.
The world markets are more up than down but mixed. The Hang Seng in China was up .51%, the NIKKEI in Japan was up 1.09% and the Straits Time Index in Singapore was up .37%. In Europe, the FTSE in London is currently barely up .07%, the DAX in Germany is up even less at .05%, and the Spanish index is down .73%.
The Dollar is very weak this morning. It's down .73% against the Euro, down .45% against the Pound and down .67% against the Japanese Yen.
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