>http://www.cnbc.com/id/102401609
>
>Largest job growth since 1999.
>Remember those crazy Y2K days?

And thank you for validating a point that both Marcia and I have been making.

The unemployment rate increased - more often than not, that's not a good thing - but this time around the labor force rate ticked higher. Which means for the snapshot of December, you had slightly less % people who were completely out of the labor force. We need a higher labor force rate, especially in the 21-54 range, to get us out of the recession. Period.

So yes, December was indeed not a bad month.

I'll quote the manager from the movie Major Leagues (I forget his name)...."yesterday we won a game. If we win today, it's two in a row. If we win tomorrow, that's called a winning streak. It's been known to happen"

Remember (and I know you know this), these numbers are based on survey data. So you need a trend of several months to make any definitive conclusions. But this is a case where an increase in the unemployment rate is technically a good thing.

Now what we need to see is an uptick in consumer spending on durable goods.

I neither give Obama much credit for this, nor do I hold him principally responsible for the slow recovery. Truthfully, he and Congress should just leave the economy alone and stop doing things that negatively impact middle and lower-middle income Americans.