Thursday Morning News, Views, And Links -- Jobless Rate Improves; GDP Surges

Yes, I've been posting since about 6:30 a.m. and just noticed that it was Thursday, not Wednesday. That's what happens when one is retired, and has the day off from child care responsibilities. Actually, I only have the morning off. I will have the granddaughters this afternoon and early evening.

GDP surges in second quarter, they say. Let's see, Reuters is reporting:

The U.S. economy accelerated more quickly than expected in the second quarter thanks to a surge in exports, bolstering the case for the Federal Reserve to wind down a major economic stimulus program.

Gross domestic product grew at a 2.5 percent annual rate, according to revised estimates for the period that were released by the Commerce Department on Thursday. The quarter's growth rate was more than double the pace clocked in the prior three months.

The report could boost confidence that the economy is turning a corner despite government austerity measures. At the same time, a full recovery from the 2007-09 recession is probably years away as the U.S. jobless rate remains historically high at 7.4 percent.

Jobless news:

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits slipped 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 331,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

Claims for the prior week were revised to show 1,000 more applications received than previously reported.

The four-week moving average for new claims, which irons out week-to-week volatility, ticked up 750 to 331,250, still holding at a level economists associate with a strengthening labor market.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions based on what you read here, or what you think you read here. 

Labor participation hits 34-year low. 

WSJ Links

Detroit woes add to angst over municipal debt: 

Bonds from some financially troubled issuers, like Puerto Rico and Chicago, have been particularly hard hit. Debt from the Windy City, which was downgraded by Moody's Investors Service last month amid questions about its pension liabilities, now yield about 1.50 percentage points more than a municipal market benchmark, up from about one percentage point in early July, according to Dan Toboja, senior vice president in fixed-income trading at investment bank and broker-dealer B.C. Ziegler & Co. in Chicago. Higher yields indicate lower prices.  

IBM has a new competitor: Amazon. Who wudda thought?

To understand the challenges facing makers of server systems, look to health-care staffing firm Schumacher Group.

The Lafayette, La., company, has been shifting a growing proportion of its computing chores to computers operated by Amazon.com Inc.  In the past year, Schumacher purchased just one server from Hewlett-Packard Co., says Douglas Menefee, Schumacher's chief information officer.

Five years ago, the company may have bought 50 such servers for as much as $12,000 apiece. "We don't really buy hardware anymore," says Mr. Menefee.

Many other companies are turning to operations like Amazon Web Services or Rackspace Hosting Inc. instead of buying and maintaining their own systems. The trend adds to a growing list of pressures for makers of servers, a crucial class of computers whose growth and profitability is being squeezed.

There are several story lines here. The biggest: Amazon is a trusted name in providing service. Very, very interesting. IBM doesn't have time for the "little guy." Amazon does. H-P, one word: clunky.

Syria: attack will be brief, limited.....and delayed. Stories everywhere; no link needed.

Ms Yellin playing down her chances of getting new job. The old glass ceiling.

Op-ed: $15/hour for McDonald's new workers will mean two things: fewer jobs in the fast-food industry, and a move to self-ordering at iPad kiosks. Personally, I like the idea of iPad-kiosk ordering.

Op-ed:  Here comes the unaffordable careless act. Same story, different verse. I no longer care; I will continue to post stories on this debacle, this train wreck, but I've long lost interest.

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A Note To The Granddaughters

During the past few evenings I've been watching 'curb your enthusiasm,' the HBO television show. I don't recall if I ever saw the show when it first came out, but I was well aware of it, and wanted to see it. I had seen snippets on YouTube. So, now I've watched the first three seasons and am wondering whether to get the next six seasons. I don't know if new episodes are still being filmed or if the series is over.

I have grown tired of the series: Larry David is a misanthrope; he engenders no empathy, or sympathy; he is a loser; he is pathetic. The issues are banal. The episodes are repetitious.

But I'm addicted. I can't not watch it. I can't wait to see what craziness is up next.

People compare it to Seinfeld. Some say 'curb your enthusiasm' copies Seinfeld, but a cheap imitation. In fact, it is the other way around. 'curb your enthusiasm' is the prequel to Seinfeld. Just like "Firewalk With Me" was the prequel/sequel to Twin Peaks.

Having watched 'curb your enthusiasm,' I now see that Seinfeld was the slicked up, glossy, no-bloopers-allowed, over-the-top-Kramer sitcom based on Larry David's stand-up comedy. The only question I have is whether Larry David is the original, whether Jerry Seinfeld is the original, or is there an Ur-David-Seinfeld out there somewhere.

Seinfeld was hilarious; there's no question about that, but it was not reality. Sure, it was real, but not reality; it was sanitized, cleaned up, cut, edited, sitcom perfect.

'curb your enthusiasm' has so many defects. The actors -- if one can call them actors -- are generally one frame from breaking out of character and laughing. You can see it in their faces. I am impressed they can keep it together long enough to keep it going.

The cutting and editing is atrocious; the continuity between frames is incredibly bad. Larry David says they did many, many more takes on each scene than on sitcoms like Seinfeld. That is not surprising. This was improvisation; very little writing was done. Actors were given a scene and then then improvised the dialogue. So instead of actors working out the scene and their lines without being in front of the cameras, it was just the opposite here: they worked out their lines and the scenes in front of the cameras. Money was spent on filming, and not on editing. They may not have the time either to do the right editing. 'curb your enthusiasm' becomes a throwaway "sitcom." One saves Seinfeld for the ages; 'curb your enthusiasm' will be thrown out with the day-old newspaper.

It's easy to say that the show is about a dysfunctional group of Hollywood acquaintances. They are not dysfunctional; they portray what people like me think Hollywood personalities are like. And the fact that the show has been nominated/won so many awards suggest that Hollywood says "yes" this is what we are like. Banal, petty, self-centered, self-righteous, non-Christian, and unable to talk without using the f-word. It may not be 100% accurate, but my hunch is it comes very, very close to reality (without the scenes of drug use or sex). Or at least the reality the bored wives of Hollywood want to project. It sort of explains Mylie, I suppose.