Jobless Claims Lowest in 4 Years

Down to 310,000.

Pretty good, but the article is loaded up with (apparently on-the-level) caution that not a whole lot can be read into this particular number, because there's some sort of seasonal adjustment in the car-parts-manufacturing sector that's a little sketchy.

The cowbell has been discounted due to the potential unreliability of the reading.

Johnny Coldcuts Says: Don't be such a fuckin' pussy. You're really starting to piss me off, asscracker. Better it shows a 4-year-low than a two-year-high. Ya frigging dickweed. You fairy.

In Other Positive Economic News: Arnold King explains why the boom in productivity -- the best four-year increase in productivity since at least 1960 -- is a good thing.

He then turns to the question of why the media refuses to report on it:

The other reason that the productivity story is not big news is that the current Administration is unpopular with the media. As much as the media is averse to reporting good news, I think that productivity would receive greater coverage if the big gains were taking place on a Democratic President's watch. The upbeat productivity data would "fit" the story of competent Democratic stewardship of the economy. But it would spoil the narrative of the Bush Administration as bumbling and Hoover-esque to point out that the most fundamental measure of our economic strength is shooting through the roof. It's not that I think that high productivity growth is a partisan story that reflects well on President Bush. But the failure to report on the phenomenon is a partisan story that reflects poorly on the ability of the press to rise above its biases and keep the public informed.