Economy/Ecommerce

Speaking before a joint session of Congress on Thursday, President Obama took to the bully pulpit to call for the passage of a $450-or-so billion jobs program.

The Conference Board’s Employment Trends Index, which is always released right after the official U.S. monthly employment numbers, dropped slightly to 100.8 in August, compared with a revised July figure of 101.

The miserable jobs report on the Friday before Labor Day included some miserable details. The private sector did, in fact, create a modicum of jobs during August. But that was cancelled out by governments shedding just that many workers.

The newly found focus on jobs in Washington–with the administration pushing one plan, House Republicans another–seems all the more urgent in the light of the jobs numbers on Friday.

On Wednesday, the ADP National Employment Report reported that private-sector employment increased by 91,000 from July to August.

The S&P/Case-Shiller’s National Home Price Index increased by 3.6 percent in the second quarter of 2011, after having fallen 4.1 percent during the first quarter of 2011.

In July, U.S. consumers dipped into their savings to do what U.S. consumers are famous for, buying things. The fear of a double-dip recession or default by the federal government or even fear itself didn’t stop Americans’ spending from rising 0.8 percent during the month, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce on Monday

Bernanke managed to calm Wall Street for a while on Friday while not managing to be too specific. He certainly wasn’t specific about anything along the lines of QE3, though also in typical Bernanke style, he didn’t quite rule it out, either.