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Macleans.ca

Canada’s magazine

Econowatch: early September 2011

The relative calm of markets during the first week of September brought a welcome end to a thoroughly rotten August. For several days, investors rediscovered their inner bulls, largely on reports that U.S. Federal Reserve officials are warming to the idea of buying even more government bonds to try to stimulate the economy.

Can Obama escape those unemployment numbers?

The latest U.S. job creation numbers are disappointing, as unemployment hit 9.1% with only 54,000 new jobs created in May. They’re especially discouraging when contrasted with the 244,000 new jobs that emerged in April. President Obama had trouble hiding his disappointment when he talked about ‘bumps in the road,’ while visiting a Chrysler auto plant last week to highlight the domestic auto-manufacturing comeback following its bailout. His spokespeople emphasized that over 2 million private sector jobs were created in the past 15 months. Yet, it’s hard to overlook the fact that 13.9 million Americans are still out of work and 45% have been unemployed for more than six months.

Signs of life for Michael Ignatieff

Prorogation allowed Ignatieff to see through the fog of his foibles and find his vision