RECOVERY?  DID SOMEONE SAY RECOVERY? – AT 8:58 A.M. ET:  The January jobs report was issued by the Department of Labor a few minutes ago.  Ain't good.  From The New York Times: 

American employers added 157,000 jobs in January compared with a revised 196,000 jobs the previous month, the Labor Department reported on Friday. The unemployment rate was little changed, ticking up to 7.9 percent from 7.8 percent in December.

COMMENT:  This comes a few days after we learned that the American economy actually contracted in the last quarter of 2012. 

And there are serious danger signs ahead:  If Obama goes through with his nutty plans to slash the Pentagon budget unmercifully, tens of thousands of jobs will be lost.  And consumer psychology is weakening in many sectors.  A recent report indicated that high-tech companies are having trouble selling their products even to economically comfortable buyers because there's resistance to new purchases.

Will we go into a double-dip recession?  I'm not so sure we ever undipped from the first one. 

February 1, 2013