It's Hump Day!

Click to enlarge.

This linear trend failure is making a most spectacular recovery! What a rare treat in this brave new era of trend failures!

Nixon Shock

To prevent a run on the dollar, stabilize the US economy, and decrease US unemployment and inflation rates, on August 15, 1971, Nixon issued Executive Order 11615, pursuant to the Economic Stabilization Act of 1970, which imposed a 90-day maximum wage and price ceiling, a 10% import surcharge and most importantly, "closed the gold window", ending convertibility between U.S. dollars and gold.

August 04, 2011
Bloomberg: The Nixon Shock

According to Burns biographer Wyatt Wells, Nixon issued his appointee some blunt instructions: “You see to it,” Nixon said. “No recession.”

In hindsight, good luck on that one Burns!

And the anguish that Burns felt is Ben Bernanke’s unfortunate inheritance.

Good luck to you as well Bernanke!

August 6, 2013
More Than a Quarter of Fast-Food Workers Are Raising a Child

(The Bureau of Labor Statistics, for its part, reports that median age of "combined food preparation and serving workers," a category that includes your average McDonald's hand, is about 29).

The following chart shows the additional percentage of 16- to 19-year-olds employed in July compared to those employed in January of that same year.


Click to enlarge.

The long-term pressure is clearly to the downside, and that means that summer jobs have definitely become an endangered species. Of course, that's also true of employment in general for this age group. The jobs just aren't there. And in my opinion, no amount of optimistic wishing is going to make them magically reappear either, especially over the long-term. Sigh.

Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: 25- to 54-Year-Old Workers / 55+ Year-Old Workers
St. Louis Fed: 16- to 19-Year-Old Employment Rate