Chris Low: U.S. economy is ‘being held hostage’ by eurozone crisis
Jeremy Hobson: The Labor Department said this morning that 103,000 jobs were created in the U.S. last month and the unemployment rate remains at 9.1 percent.
The jobs report is where we will start with our regular Friday guest Chris Low, chief economist with FTN Financial, who’s with us live this morning from San Francisco.
Chris Low: Good morning.
Hobson: So Chris, 103,000 jobs added last month — what do you think?
Low: Well, this is one of those reports where Wall Street’s reaction pretty well sums it up, right, because it is mixed. On one hand, we have 103,000 new jobs, which is good news. We also have an upward revision to August, so that zero is gone — that’s also good news.
But it’s still frustratingly not enough to pull the unemployment rate down from 9.1 percent, where it’s been stuck more or less for about four months.
Hobson: Chris, I want to have you put this in the context of something that’s a big story over here in the U.K. The Head of the Bank of England yesterday, Mervyn King, said as he decided to pump another $115 billion into the economy, that this could be the most serious financial crisis the world has ever faced. Here he is:
Mervyn King: I think it’s pretty clear that the world economy as a whole is slowing much faster than people eve thought a month of even a few months ago.
So Chris Low, is he right?
Low: I think he is right. The global economy is slowing significantly — it’s not just Europe too, it’s emerging markets as well. The good news there is that the U.S. can grow well without the rest of the world, we’ve done it before.
The unfortunate thing is that all of us are being held hostage in a sense by the 17 European countries in the eurozone who have got to fix their banking crisis, because that could affect us all.
Hobson: Chris Low, Chief Economist with FTN Financial, thanks as always.
Low: You’re welcome.
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
