The US recovery is no longer jobless - only homeless. Despite the 200,000 jobs added last month and another drop in unemployment, job creation is still slower than in recent recoveries. That&rsquo;s partly because the weak housing market means few new construction jobs. Still, President Barack Obama can breathe easier.

Homeless recovery

Business Standard

Financial repression &ndash; forcing investors to buy sovereign debt at real yields that are low or negative &ndash; is attractive to governments which have botched their finances. It also appeals to my colleague, Edward Hadas. But, the practice distorts the price mechanism and zaps the economy. The UK in the 1970s is a prime example &ndash; all pain, no gain for the economy. And, such repression is nothing more or less than theft from the most virtuous citizens &mdash; those who save.

Savers of the world unite!

The US Federal Reserve could be setting itself up for an uncomfortable surprise. It extended its commitment to keep interest rates near zero, from about 18 months to three years on Wednesday. Job creation, departure of chairman Ben Bernanke or rising inflation could force a damaging reversal before then &mdash; or lead the Fed to drag its feet to avoid one.

Steering locked

The US private sector is emerging from government&rsquo;s shadow. Headline annualised GDP growth of 2.8 per cent in Friday&rsquo;s fourth-quarter data looks more anaemic when inventory growth is netted out. But overall in 2011, as government retreated, private enterprise has regained strength.

Growth in private

A strong US employment report on Friday masked some lingering malaise. January saw 257,000 new private-sector positions created and the jobless rate falling further to 8.3 per cent. That&rsquo;s good news for job-seekers and Obama fans. But labour force participation is well below 2007 levels and long-term unemployment is way too high.

Jobs but not for all

After a century-long nap, I awoke in 2012. The world is changed, but not utterly.

Progress or regress

Myanmar is preparing for an investment rush, but it is still far from ready. New draft laws on foreign capital suggest it may follow the success of Vietnam and Cambodia, both of which have achieved rapid growth despite weak government. But Myanmar's economy is horribly distorted, and it may take years to iron out the creases.

Burmese daze

The quest for quality of life may one day dethrone cities like New York and London. They&rsquo;re still the most global cities, according to A T Kearney&rsquo;s biennial ranking, with Paris and Tokyo next. But, Vienna, rated only 13th among global cities, tops Mercer&rsquo;s current quality of living survey. As technology makes location less critical, life quality may matter more.

Style or substance?

Money supply is rising fast, so where is the inflation? US consumer prices rose 0.4 per cent in February, but that was mostly gasoline. Year-on-year, inflation is above the Fed&rsquo;s two per cent target but not by much. Yet, money supply is going through the roof. Either inflation is on the way, or Milton Friedman should lose his Nobel prize.

Money, money, everywhere

The improving US jobs trend confirmed by Friday&rsquo;s data favours the old over the young. A solid 227,000 jobs were added, with upward revisions for past months, even though the unemployment rate stayed at 8.3 per cent. However, in the last five years, people aged 55 and over have gained 3.6 million jobs, while younger workers have lost 7.6 million. The incentives of shrunken savings and funny money are doubly harming the young.

Jobs for wrinklies

A limited nuclear deal with the United States suggests North Korea&rsquo;s Kim Jong-un might be looking for a thaw. If the country&rsquo;s basketball-loving young master really wants to build on that agreement and bring economic growth to his impoverished citizens, land reform would be a good place to start.

Kim possible?

President Cristina Fernandez&rsquo; YPF seizure derives from a long, sad Argentine political tradition. Such nationalistic tendencies stretch back nearly a century. Juan Peron, founder of Fernandez&rsquo;s party, also grabbed many businesses in the 1940s. But, commodity prices don&rsquo;t stay high forever.

La historia

Ben Bernanke seems to be just hoping for the best. Wednesday&rsquo;s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) statement talks about a pick-up in growth even as inflation declines from the current run-rate above the Federal Reserve&rsquo;s two per cent target. These trends aren&rsquo;t apparent from recent data, and the US central bank needs contingency plans if things don&rsquo;t pan out so conveniently.

Wishful Ben

US company profits are at a new high as a share of GDP. Yet, estimated first-quarter output showed a 2.1 per cent rate of decline in private sector non-residential investment. True, the US economy&rsquo;s non-government sector grew solidly. But weak investment bodes ill for the medium term.

Hollow gains

Barack Obama can at last say he has presided over increased employment in America&rsquo;s private sector, if not in government, since he arrived in the White House in January 2009. But the slowing pace of job creation evident from Friday&rsquo;s monthly report and declining labour force participation could make for a tough sell in November&rsquo;s elections.

Caveat empsit

Soft US jobs data for May are testing battling economic ideas. With employment and GDP growth sub-par, Keynesian and monetary stimulus theories, for instance, are losing credibility. The winner for now is Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff&rsquo;s thesis that too much debt stunts growth.

Dismal ideas

The Federal Reserve is suffering diminishing returns from its ideas to prop up the US economy. The members of its Federal Open Market Committee decided on Wednesday to extend Operation Twist to the end of the year in an attempt to keep long-term interest rates low. That means both monetary and fiscal policy remain locked on stimulus. But economic and jobs growth are slowing. The obvious effects of Washington&rsquo;s drugs are starting to wear off.

Weak remedies

Venezuela and Iran are looking desperate. Barely three weeks after the most recent OPEC meeting, the two countries are clamouring for an emergency gathering. They&rsquo;re claiming that overproduction is depressing prices and want to institute a price band to halt the drop. But crude is hovering just below $100 a barrel, near its highest level in decades.

Martin Hutchinson