Euro finance ministers claim an expanded crisis rescue fund; will the IMF buy their math?

The math is predictably suspect. The headlines are characteristically deceptive. The self-congratulation is pathetic as usual. And the announced 800 billion euro cap for the European rescue fund isn’t, predictably, anything like that amount in reality. It’s really just the same old 500 billion European Stability Mechanism that was in place before the meeting.

Today’s revisions to initial claims for unemployment put improving trend in question

This morning’s stories on the initial claims for unemployment data released today say that claims declined to 359,000 for the week that ended on March 24 from 364,000 for the week that ended on March 17. But the initial claims level only showed a drop because the Department of Labor revised the numbers for the previous week upward. Without that revision, we’re looking at an increase in initial claims

Go away in May starts to weigh on stocks

To subscribe to JAM you need to fill in some details below including, ahem, some info on how you'll pay us. A subscription is $199 (although if you're subscribing with one of our special offers it will be lower) for a year for ongoing and continuing access to the...