5 Secrets of Marketwatch Headline Writing Now

Marketwatch, a WSJ web site, has sunk to the lowest awful denominator in headline writing. The formula seems to be "5 ways/secrets/moves BLANK is playing EVENT now" OR "How a bull/bear/trader is reacting to EVENT". The key is to motivate pure speculation based on how other speculators are speculating right now.

Here are a couple of examples:

How one superbull would trade the market open

5 money moves a euro realist is making now

5 money moves a prudent speculator is making now
Prudent?! speculator??.

Money moves 5 doomsayers are making now
Did you catch how they tricked you there? This time, it wasn't 5 moves, it was 5 doomsayers. These people are wizards with words!

5 money moves a cautious capitalist is making now

The financial media, hand maidens to the financial industry, paid for by the financial industry, doesn't care whether you are a superbull, a doomsayer, a cautious capitalist, or a prudent speculator. They just want you to churn your money through the grinder to get their vig. Most of their headlines read like this:
SPECULATE! SPECULATE! SPECULATE NOW!

Only in the greatest country in the world.

Labor Force Employment Details

This post inspired by Calculated Risk's Further Discussion on Labor Force Participation Rate.

Total employment is still off about 3.7 million jobs from the peak in 2007, and up about 5 million total jobs (full and part time) from the bottom in 2009. Let's zoom in on the part time jobs.

We are up about 2.6 million part time jobs from the total employment peak in 2007, but we are up about 4.3 million part time jobs for economic reasons. The largest employment growth segment over the last 5 years is part time for economic reasons. If the economy had not replaced so many full time jobs with part time jobs, we would also be down 1.7 million part time jobs (new part time jobs - new part time for economic reasons).

Disclaimer: part time economic blogger for non-economic reasons