America In Realization [12.06.14]

Good News At A Glance:

• The Labor Department reported on Friday that employers added 321,000 jobs in November, a much stronger number than economists had predicted and the 10th consecutive month of net job gains above 200,000.
• Even more significant was that the improving job market finally delivered a sharp jump in average hourly earnings for ordinary workers that was double the anticipated 0.2 percent increase.  
• Health care spending is growing at the slowest pace since statisticians began tracking it in 1960. 
• The number of uninsured Americans has fallen 30 percent in a year. 
• At an average of $2.71 a gallon, regular unleaded gasoline is at its lowest price since 2010 and is still dropping, according to AAA. 
• Economic growth between July and September was revised upward last month to 3.9 percent.

• And the budget deficit, already below its 40-year average as measured against the economy, is likely to fall again this fiscal year."
• Violent U.S. crime drops again, reaches 1970s level: FBI

Business & Economy

Employment & Jobs

• Big Job Gains and Rising Pay in Labor Data (New York Times)

• After Jobs Report, Obama Takes a Little Credit! (New York Times) 

"The Labor Department reported on Friday that employers added 321,000 jobs in November, a much stronger number than economists had predicted and the 10th consecutive month of net job gains above 200,000.

Even more significant was that the improving job market finally delivered a sharp jump in average hourly earnings for ordinary workers that was double the anticipated 0.2 percent increase.

With one month still to go, the total increase in payrolls of 2.65 million is already the best annual figure since the late 1990s.

“In one line: spectacular and, more to the point, believable,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics."

Trade Policy

• American trade policy : The Opportunity in Free Trade & The Political Gridlock that obstructs it (Economist) 

Politics

• Brighter Economy Raises Odds of Action in Congress (New York Times) 

Senator Bob Dole, Vice President Al Gore, President Clinton and Newt Gingrich, the House speaker, in budget talks in 1995. Credit William J. Clinton Presidential Library

"A strikingly improving labor market, coupled with broad economic growth and a falling federal budget deficit, is improving the prospects of bipartisan cooperation next year — if Republicans and Democrats can seize on easing fiscal pressures to give both sides some of their wish lists.

On Friday, the Labor Department reported that United States payrolls rose by 321,000 jobs in November and that hourly wages jumped, easily beating economists’ expectations. This year will be the best for job creation since the boom years of the late 1990s.

• Hillary Clinton’s History as First Lady (New York Times) 

"As a young lawyer for the Watergate committee in the 1970s, Hillary Rodham caught a ride home one night with her boss, Bernard Nussbaum. Sitting in the car before going inside, she told him she wanted to introduce him to her boyfriend. “Bernie,” she said, “he’s going to be president of the United States.”

It turned out she was right. Ms. Rodham, who later married that ambitious boyfriend, Bill Clinton, believed even then that life would take her to the White House and now may seek to return not as a spouse and partner, but on her own terms."

Law Enforcement

• Violent U.S. crime drops again, reaches 1970s level: FBI (Reuters) 

• Why 20 year drop in crime is more impressive than it seems (Christian Science Monitor) 

"The decline is occurring at the same time as two factors long believed to lead to an increase in crime: The US prison population is dropping and the number of young adults has risen."

International Relations - Foreign Policy

• Clinton defends Obama on Iran talks (CNN) 

"Hillary Clinton is defending President Barack Obama's decision to extend talks with Iran over dismantling its nuclear program."

• Meeting Afghan Leaders, Donors Pledge Support (New York Times) 

Abdullah Abdullah, right, Afghanistan’s chief executive,
with Secretary of State John Kerry at a conference in London.