By the way the Freddy Mac stock I bought recently doubled in after hours trading today, when they announced a 3/4 billion dollar profit after the market closed, profit in the second quarter, enough to pay most of the US treasury's 1.1 billion dollar dividend on the preferred shares it bought last year. First profit in 2 years.
So they and AIG are coming back from zombie status
Here are more exact numbers than mine above:
"Government-controlled Freddie Mac reported second-quarter net income of $768 million, compared with a $9.9 billion loss in the first quarter and a $821 million deficit in the period a year ago.After payments of $1.1 billion in preferred stock dividends to the U.S. Treasury, Freddie Mac had a net loss of 11 cents per diluted common share.
For the first quarter in four, Freddie Mac said it would not need a capital injection from the U.S. Treasury to maintain its business of providing credit for U.S. housing."
XJjeeper, just read the rest of your last post. Nice post, good details, except for the inflated :laugh: first statement!
So sorta ignore my last post, it was meant more for those saying the latest data is meaningless. The UE trend has been falling long term since March, but this was the first time the net number reversed (and it did it by .6% versus last month), which is significant mainly because the large reduced number of people layed off last week and last month was a major factor (Perhaps the major factor) in the drop in the UE number, not just changes in those actively looking for work, or collecting benefits, etc.
.
Here is a good analysis of the news effect:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_economy
"A net total of 247,000 jobs were lost last month, the fewest in a year and a drastic improvement from the 443,000 that vanished in June"
It also goes on to say part of the drop is from people who stopped looking for work, but that does not change the fact that the lost jobs number was around 760,000 /month earlier this year, and now it is down to 247,000.
"Yet the improvements in July could give some businesses the confidence to hire again — or at least not to lay off more workers. And consumers, less anxious about losing jobs, could respond by spending more freely. Goes on to say:
"If people and companies think the worst is behind them — and it probably is — their confidence will be restored," said Richard Yamarone, economist at Argus Research. "That confidence can feed on itself."
Here is another good answer:
"A Labor Department
report out this morning found that employees cut 247,000 jobs in July. While this was relatively good news – it represented the fewest lost jobs in a year – it still meant nearly 250,000 jobs lost for the month. Yet the unemployment rate actually
fell, from 9.5 to 9.4 percent.
Which may leave one asking: Why did the unemployment rate fall even as more jobs were lost?
The short answer is that the labor force shrunk. David Wyss, chief economist for Standard & Poor's,
suggested that students who had been looking for summer jobs essentially gave up, moving them out of the category of unemployed. (They were no longer looking for work, after all.)"
From:
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/08/07/business/econwatch/entry5224352.shtml
aper: to your elected officials and make them aware of your Will, can and will do something, and if they fail to exercise the Will of the People, theyneed to know that they are FIRED at the next election. 
