In the United
States, it was more of the same ole, same ole…
The Dow Jones
Industrial Average and Standard & Poor’s 500 closed at record highs for the
34th time and 49th time this year, respectively. The
impetus last week was a jobs report that far exceeded expectations. For the 10th
consecutive month, more than 200,000 jobs have been created. That’s the longest
string of improvements since 1994, according to Reuters. Not only did U.S. employers hire the most new workers in
three years, wages ticked higher, too. An expert cited by Barron’s said the underlying report data was promising:
“The average
workweek was 34.6 hours, up from 34.5, and where it was before the 2008 crisis.
That level acts as an effective ceiling to additional hours and suggests
employers will have to increase hiring, he says – hence the pop in bond yields.
The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield jumped to 2.31 percent from 2.26 percent
on Friday. (Bond prices move inversely to yields.)”
Analysts told CNBC.com the strong jobs report might
mean the Federal Reserve will begin to raise the Fed funds rates by mid-2015.
The Stoxx Europe Index
closed at a relatively high level, even though things weren’t so rosy economically
in the Eurozone. Inflation continued to fall and is now close to zero. The last
time inflation was at 2 percent, which is the level targeted by the European
Central Bank (ECB), was two years ago, according to The New York Times.
The ECB continues
to talk a big game without taking any action, according to Barron’s. Last week, President Mario Draghi said the ECB plans to
assess the success of its current stimulus programs as well as the effects of
lower energy prices early in 2015. However, he offered no specific monetary easing
measures or a timeline for action. It was the same message he delivered in
October and November of 2014. Experts cited by The New York Times indicated the ECB could lose credibility if it
fails to act early next year.
pondering the effects of long working
hours. In
1960, about one-half of the jobs in the United States were at least mildly
physically strenuous. Gosh, how things have changed. Today, we’re a lot more
sedentary. Just 20 percent of jobs are at all strenuous and has produced the
wrong type of growth, according to Joelle Abramowitz, an economist at the U.S. Census
Bureau and author of a paper entitled, The
connection between working hours and body mass index in the U.S.: a time use
analysis.
Abramowitz found 70 percent or more of people who
work 40 or more hours a week are overweight. All those extra hours people put
in trying to impress the boss, or wining and dining clients, don’t pay off when
it comes to maintaining a healthy weight. For every 10 hours worked – over and
above the weekly 40 – at a non-strenuous job, men gain about 1.4 pounds and
women gain about 2.5 pounds. The
Economist theorized longer work hours might translate into less exercise
time, more take-out meals, and fewer hours of sleep. All of these have the
potential to affect weight.
In a separate article, The Economist pointed out there has been a significant shift in the
leisure time of the rich and the poor. One expert cited said, “In the 19th
century you could tell how poor somebody was by how long they worked.” That has
changed over time. In 1965, college-educated men, who tended to earn more than
men without college degrees, had more leisure time than men with only high
school diplomas. By 2005 the college-educated enjoyed eight hours less leisure
time each week than the high school grads.
It’s interesting to note less than 60 percent of
Americans who work 20 or fewer hours a week are overweight.
Weekly Focus – Think About It
“The
best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside,
somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature, and God.
Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be.”
--Anne Frank, Writer
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