IS THIS GOOD NEWS FOR OBAMA? – AT 9:01 A.M. ET:  It's strange how jobless reports are improving right before the election.  You don't think they're cooking...?  Nah. 

But today's numbers will be used as talking points by the Obamans...until Romney and company point out that they don't change the overall economic reality.  From Bloomberg:

Fewer Americans than forecast filed first-time claims for unemployment benefits last week, which may reflect difficulty adjusting the data for seasonal swings at the start of a new quarter.

Applications for jobless benefits dropped 30,000 to 339,000 in the week ended Oct. 6, the fewest since February 2008, Labor Department figures showed today. Economists forecast 370,000 claims, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. One state accounted for most of the plunge in claims, a Labor Department spokesman said as the data were issued to the press.

Waning dismissals may help clear the way for bigger hiring gains with any improvement in demand. At the same time, the global economy cooling and a lack of clarity on U.S. fiscal policy are hurdles for faster gains in employment.

“Job destruction is really not the problem,” Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James & Associates Inc. in St. Petersburg, Florida, said before the report. “It’s been the relatively weak pace of new hiring.”

COMMENT:  And that's the point Romney and Ryan must make.  Jobless claims, even assuming the numbers are honest, reflect many things, including the fact that many people have run out of benefits, and others have left the job force.

The bottom line is that we're not adding enough new jobs to make a difference.  Our economy is just not expanding.  And new figures just out this morning show that our trade deficit has widened once more and that prices of imports increased more than expected.  That brings the prospect of inflation.

CNBC notes:   "A wider trade deficit acts as a drag on growth because it means the U.S. is earning less on overseas sales of American-produced goods while spending more on foreign products."

Happy days aren't here again.

October 11, 2012