http://www.wired.com/2014/04/heartbleedslesson/

Stephen Henson is responsible for the tiny piece of software code that rocked the internet earlier this week.

The key moment arrived at about 11 o’clock on New Year’s Eve, 2011. With 2012 just minutes away, Henson received the code from Robin Seggelmann, a respected academic who’s an expert in internet protocols. Henson reviewed the code — an update for a critical internet security protocol called OpenSSL — and by the time his fellow Britons were ringing in the New Year, he had added it to a software repository used by sites across the web.

Two years would pass until the rest of the world discovered this, but this tiny piece of code contained a bug that would cause massive headaches for internet companies worldwide, give conspiracy theorists a field day, and, well, undermine our trust in the internet. The bug is called Heartbleed, and it’s bad. People have used it to steal passwords and usernames from Yahoo. It could let a criminal slip into your online bank account. And in theory, it could even help the NSA or China with their surveillance efforts.

It’s no surprise that a small bug would cause such huge problems. What’s amazing, however, is that the code that contained this bug was written by a team of four coders that has only one person contributing to it full-time. And yet Henson’s situation isn’t an unusual one. It points to a much larger problem with the design of the internet. Some of its most important pieces are controlled by just a handful of people, many of whom aren’t paid well — or aren’t paid at all. And that needs to change. Heartbleed has shown — so very clearly — that we must add more oversight to the internet’s underlying infrastructure. We need a dedicated and well-funded engineering task force overseeing not just online encryption but many other parts of the net.

The sad truth is that open source software — which underpins vast swathes of the net — has a serious sustainability problem. While well-known projects such as Linux, Mozilla, and the Apache web server enjoy hundreds of millions of dollars of funding, there are many other important projects that just don’t have the necessary money — or people — behind them. Mozilla, maker of the Firefox browser, reported revenues of more than $300 million in 2012. But the OpenSSL Software Foundation, which raises money for the project’s software development, has never raised more than $1 million in a year; its developers have never all been in the same room. And it’s just one example. In some ways, there’s a bug in the open source ecosystem. Projects start when developers need to fix a particular problem, and when they open source their solution, it’s instantly available to everyone. If the problem they address is common, the software can become wildly popular in a flash — whether there is someone in place to maintain the project or not. So some projects never get the full attention from developers they deserve. “I think that is because people see and touch Linux, and they see and touch their browsers, but users never see and touch a cryptographic library,” says Steve Marquess, one of the OpenSSL foundation’s partners.

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http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/silicon-valley-could-force-nsa-reform-tomorrow-whats-taking-so-long?akid=11712.227380.s0mAHK&rd=1&src=newsletter981068&t=32

ith Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras triumphantly returning to the US to accept the Polk Award with Barton Gellman and Ewan MacAskill yesterday, maybe it's time we revisit one of their first and most importantstories: how much are internet companies like Facebook and Google helping the National Security Agency, and why aren't they doing more to stop it?

The CEOs of the major tech companies came out of the gate swinging 10 months ago, complaining loudly about how NSA surveillance has been destroying privacy and ruining their business. They still are. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg recently called the US a "threat" to the Internet, and Eric Schmidt, chairman of Google, called some of the NSA tactics " outrageous" and potentially " illegal". They and their fellow Silicon Valley powerhouses – from Yahoo to Dropbox and Microsoft to Apple and more – formed a coalition calling for surveillance reform and had conversations with the White House.

But for all their talk, the public has come away empty handed. The USA Freedom Act, the only major new bill promising real reform, has been stalled in the Judiciary Committee. The House Intelligence bill may be worse than the status quo. Politico reported on Thursday that companies like Facebook and are now "holding fire" on the hill when it comes to pushing for legislative reform.

The keepers of the everyday internet seem to care more about PR than helping their users. The truth is, if the major tech companies really wanted to force meanginful surveillance reform, they could do so tomorrow. Just follow the example of OKCupid from last week...

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http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/can-gm-face-criminal-charges-covering-safety-flaws?akid=11695.227380.yQK3TZ&rd=1&src=newsletter979436&t=8

Back in 2005, General Motors management decided that a few dollars per car was too much to spend to keep its customers from peril and hid a critical safety flaw on the Chevrolet Cobalt. Now 13 people have been killed as a result of the defective ignition switches that GM refused to fix, although that number dead may really be in the hundreds.

Last week, in a Senate subcommittee hearing on the safety defect, lawmakers confronted General Motors CEO Mary Barra with evidence that a company employee, Ray DeGiorgio, intentionally tried to hide the switch problem back in 2006. It was also revealed that GM purposely withheld the knowledge that failed switches would lead to airbags not deploying in accidents.

These revelations are prompting politicians, safety advocates, victim's families, and even progressive icon Michael Moore to call for criminal charges for the people responsible for the cover up (or in Moore's hyperbolic solution, the death penalty), although there is very little precedent for such prosecution.

After the hearing, Leo Ruddy, whose 21-year-old daughter Kelly was killed 4 years ago when her Chevrolet Cobalt inexplicably crashed, told the media that "the only way the public is going to be protected from this negligence by companies is if there will ultimately be prison sentences." Rudy's call for justice was echoed by Ken Rimer, whose stepdaughter was killed in a defective Cobalt 8 years ago and by Joan Claybrook, the former director of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration when they appeared on Democracy Now!

“They knew what was going on,” Rimer told interviewer Amy Goodman. “They need to be held accountable for those decisions that they made, and throughout process, not just the guy that signed off the original paper, but, you know, his supervisor and all the way up the chain of command.”

http://www.alternet.org/hard-times-usa/blackstone-group-kicked-us-out-our-home-using-10-cops-and-lots-private-equity-power?akid=11713.227380.Bez5rz&rd=1&src=newsletter981271&t=10

At the height of the foreclosure crisis in 2011, when there were five times more vacant homes than homeless people in the United States, activists began pursuing a very simple solution: moving homeless people into people-less homes. We were one such family. In February 2013, after we lost our Section 8 housing voucher and were evicted from our subsidized apartment, we moved with our two teenage children into a vacant home in the Rogers Park neighborhood on Chicago’s North Side. That’s where we collided head-on with the investment giant Blackstone Group’s massive operation to purchase foreclosed homes.

In April 2013, we opened the door to a barrage of questions from a man we had never met.

“Do you live here?” he asked. “Do you have papers for this house?”

We didn’t know it yet, but we had just met a representative of Invitation Homes. One of the first houses the company purchased in Chicago was the one we were staying in. The house had fallen into foreclosure in 2008 and was eventually repossessed by the Bank of New York Mellon. There was some question as to whether the home had been foreclosed on wrongfully. The law firm representing the bank in the proceedings, Fisher & Shapiro, was sued in 2011 for falsifying more than 1,500 affidavits in its foreclosure cases, including this one...Neighbors told us that the home had been vacant for several years. For the most part, they greeted us happily, glad to have the house occupied again. When we moved in, mold sat thick on the walls. We enlisted a group of friends and spent about $1,000 of our own money on renovations.

The man who came to our door that day in April didn’t identify himself. We told him that we lived there but didn’t have papers, and he left. From the tone of the interaction, we assumed that he was calling the police. In Cook County, Ill., evictions are a civil matter — they must go through the proper court proceedings, and can be carried out only by the sheriff. But banks do sometimes charge housing occupiers with trespassing. We knew the risks. What we hadn’t expected was the level of aggression we would meet. The police arrived a few minutes later with a tactical squad about 10 officers strong, as though some kind of violent criminal activity was taking place. One officer climbed through the window and pointed a gun at Carmilla’s head. He handcuffed us in the kitchen and walked us outside. The police searched the home and our private possessions, even reading pages of Michael’s journal aloud. We believe that they were trying to humiliate us. They then took us to the police station. The children, at school at the time, were left to wonder what had happened to us.

We were released that day on bond and tried to return the next day with a moving truck, desperate to gather what we could and move out. We were arrested yet again. This time, the home was boarded up, with all our possessions and even our pets — a cat and a turtle — locked inside. It took more than a week of pressure and a call-in campaign by our friends and members of the housing advocacy group Communities United Against Foreclosure and Eviction to convince Invitation Homes to allow us into the house long enough to gather what we could and move out. By that time, our computer, camera and other valuables had gone missing. We never found our turtle...

MORE

Maybe Larry Ellison gets up early on Tuesdays.

He's cast a shadow on "He Who Must Be Slobbered Upon".

In 2017, they'll all convert to Scientology.

I mean seriously: are they all mentally challenged (beyond mentally ill, IMO)?

They dumped this same load of BS on Edward Snowden.
I wouldn't wish them on Scientology. Let Rev. Moon have them.

Turning Obama into the Democratic answer to Ronald Reagan is so wrong. For one thing, he doesn't qualify to fill Kennedy's shoes, let alone FDR's. Or even Reagan's... Ronald Reagan accomplished a lot more. It was stuff that shouldn't have been done, but he did it with nearly full support of the nation. And Reagan did it with style.

I think history will ultimately decide Obama was our first "gray" President. I hope he's the last, too. I don't think the country could survive a string of them. And I am forever grateful that Kerry lost. He would have left the Democrats on their knees.

I wonder who the fuck are these people? Good Lord.

I supported Dean until he withdrew. Kerry makes an empty suit a look exciting..

is such an impressive person. I met him at a fundraiser and let me tell you, I know he is sharper than 3/4 of Congress. He is politically astute. I am sure the powers to be did the hit job on him. They were afraid of him.

IMHO...he is not a sellout.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/04/17/uk-ecb-securities-pricing-idUKBREA3G0IP20140417

(Reuters) - There was a widespread easing in financing terms for euro-dominated securities in the three months to the end of February, a European Central Bank survey on credit terms and conditions in the sector showed on Thursday.

The ECB and euro zone central banks surveyed 28 large banks, comprising 13 euro area banks and 15 banks with head offices outside the euro area, between December 2013 and February 2014 on changes in credit terms and conditions.

"Across the entire range of securities financing and OTC derivatives transactions, offered price terms (such as financing rates/spreads) have eased, on balance, for nearly all types of counterparty covered in the survey," the ECB said.

Survey respondents cited changes in general market liquidity and functioning as being behind the easing in credit terms, as well as increased competition and an increased willingness to take on risk.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/04/17/uk-ecb-bundesbank-weidmann-insight-idUKBREA3G0PJ20140417

(Reuters) - As recently as last November, Jens Weidmann steadfastly opposed any move by the European Central Bank to print money to buy assets and buoy the euro zone economy. No longer.

The Bundesbank chief, known for his hardline stances at the ECB and as head of the German central bank, is now ready to support such quantitative easing (QE) if he and his ECB colleagues deem it necessary.

What has changed is that "the situation has changed", according to one person familiar with the German's thinking, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Euro zone inflation has slowed to 0.5 percent from 0.9 percent in November, falling far below the ECB's target of just under 2 percent and stoking fears the bloc could become stuck in a prolonged period of so-called "low-flation", or even sink into outright deflation.

if they want the Ponzi scheme to keep going....

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/04/17/uk-general-electric-results-idUKBREA3G0NE20140417

(Reuters) - General Electric Co (GE.N) reported a decline in quarterly net income on Thursday, hurt by lower revenue in its transportation business that sells locomotives, but the U.S. conglomerate's overall industrial profits rose by 12 percent.

First-quarter net earnings fell to $3 billion (1 billion pounds), or 30 cents per share, from $3.53 billion, or 34 cents per share, a year ago, when the company's results were boosted by its sale of NBCUniversal.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/04/17/uk-morganstanley-results-idUKBREA3G0Q120140417

(Reuters) - Morgan Stanley (MS.N) reported a 49 percent rise in first-quarter earnings on Thursday, helped by higher income from wealth management and institutional securities.

The sixth-largest U.S. bank by assets reported net income from continuing operations applicable to the company of $1.47 billion (874.42 million pounds), or 72 cents per share, compared with $981 million, or 49 cents per share, in the same quarter a year earlier.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/04/16/us-usa-fed-yellen-idUKBREA3F1A420140416

(Reuters) - Persistently low inflation poses a more immediate threat to the U.S. economy than rising prices, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said on Wednesday, stressing that the U.S. central bank would be delivering policy stimulus for some time to come.

In her second public speech since taking the Fed's helm, Yellen was careful not to predict when interest rates would rise from near zero. Instead, she stressed the decision would hinge on healing in the labor market and on how briskly inflation rises toward the Fed's 2 percent goal.

Yellen's relatively staid remarks to the Economic Club of New York intensified somewhat when Martin Feldstein, a Harvard University professor and former adviser to President Ronald Reagan, asked her whether she would let inflation creep above 2 percent to give the economy a bit more support.

"With inflation running at around 1 percent, at this point I think the risk is greater that we should be worried about inflation undershooting our goal and getting inflation back up to 2 percent," Yellen said.

don't tell me there's no inflation, unless you are referring to salaries in the $50k and below range...and welfare.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/04/17/uk-india-election-idUKBREA3G05320140417

(Reuters) - India held the biggest day of its mammoth general election on Thursday, with a quarter of its 815 million-strong electorate eligible to vote during a week of fresh blows for the ruling Congress party and gains for the Hindu nationalist opposition.

Narendra Modi, the prime-ministerial candidate of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has been wooing voters with promises to rescue India from its slowest economic growth in a decade and create jobs for its booming young population.

In the latest large opinion poll, the BJP and its allies were forecast to win a narrow majority in the 543-seat lower house of parliament, compared to previous surveys predicting that they would fall short.

Yet a decision by the Election Commission to reprimand a senior Modi aide for making speeches deemed to stir tensions with minority Muslims underlined critics' assertions that the party is a divisive force.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/04/how-to-stop-wasting-time-comparison-shopping/360757/

?n453bk
In an effort to find the most effective dish soap out there, a tester brushed an oily, purple mixture onto some plates. (Alex Farris/The Sweethome)

Tell us about Wirecutter and Sweethome. What's the idea behind them? What sets them apart from other review sites?

You know how when you—or your parents, or your friends—decide you're going to buy something new, like a new portable hard drive or a new humidifier for your bedroom, you often do some research to find out which products have the best features for the best price? And then you have to find out which features aren't worth paying for, and why is there an $800 humidifier anyway!? Well, that's the kind of thing we're trying to do for you at Wirecutter and Sweethome. As consumers, we're all basically doing the same research on the same products all the time, and it's not only redundant, it's a wasteful use of our collective time for everyone to be doing that stuff all the time.

Wirecutter and Sweethome aim to do all that research and just tell you which one or two items are the "best" for the majority of the people, the majority of the time, for any particular category. We're trying to keep the world from wasting its time doing all that research, but also trying to keep everyone from wasting their time on features that are full of hype or don't matter when it comes to real-world usage. For example, at the moment we don't recommend any 4K monitors, and that's because it's just plain not worth it for most customers right now. You aren't going to find tech sites that tell you that so clearly—their job is to talk about why 4K is awesome and why it's the future, not why the home consumer has no use for it right now.

Sometimes, we even tell readers why they shouldn't rely on something that we're reviewing. We did a piece on portable breathalyzers and presented all our research, testing data, and analysis as usual. But during that process, we also discovered that nearly all portable breathalyzers that a regular person can buy on the market today are inaccurate, not to mention that people's blood alcohol content is very hard to predict over time (your BAC continues to go up for 90 minutes after you stop drinking).

So, not only is it wildly unsafe to try to use your own breathalyzer to determine whether or not to drive, even if you did use it, your reading isn't likely to match whatever the police might read if you were to be pulled over and given a police breathalyzer.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/04/general-mills-opens-new-frontier-denying-consumers-right-sue-just-use-products.html




http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/17/business/when-liking-a-brand-online-voids-the-right-to-sue.html?_r=0

When ‘Liking’ a Brand Online Voids the Right to Sue
By STEPHANIE STROMAPRIL 16, 2014

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-27067293

US banking giants Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have reported contrasting results for the first quarter of the year.

Goldman Sachs' net earnings fell to $2.03bn from $2.26bn after a drop in revenues from its bonds, currency and trading business.

However, Morgan Stanley's profit rose to $1.45bn, compared with $981m a year ago.

Revenues rose in three of its four business segments.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-27031630

The Russian economy may see zero growth this year because of the Ukraine crisis, Russia's finance minister has admitted.

The minister, Anton Siluanov, warned the country's economy faced "the most difficult conditions since the 2008 crisis", Russian news agencies said.

Mr Siluanov said Russia had already seen capital flight of $63bn in the first three months of 2014.

Russia's annexation of Crimea is also set to increase state spending.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-17/jobless-claims-in-u-s-hover-near-lowest-level-since-2007.html

Fewer Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, a sign the labor market continues to strengthen.

Jobless claims increased by 2,000 to 304,000 in the week ended April 12 from a revised 302,000 the prior period that was the lowest since September 2007, a Labor Department report showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 47 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for an increase to 315,000.

Dismissals are on the decline as companies, already lean from recession-era job cutting, gear up for rising sales as the economy strengthens. Even with the improvement, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said yesterday that policy makers must be mindful of how short the U.S. still remains of achieving its goals of full employment and price stability.

“It’s great news that the firing side of the equation is improving, ” Tom Porcelli, chief U.S. economist at RBC Capital Markets LLC in New York, said in an interview before the report. “The problem is the hiring side hasn’t picked up much momentum.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-17/consumer-spending-on-health-care-jumps-as-obamacare-takes-hold.html

Nancy Beigel has known since September that she would need hernia surgery. She couldn’t afford it on her $11,000 yearly income until she became eligible for Medicaid in January through President Barack Obama’s signature health care law.

The law is prompting Beigel and others to spend more at the doctor’s office and pharmacy, and the impact is reflected in the latest data on consumer spending. It climbed by $20.4 billion at an annualized rate adjusted for inflation in February, and $13 billion of the increase came from outlays on health services spurred by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, according to figures from the Commerce Department.

The Urban Institute in Washington estimated this month that about 5.4 million people have gained insurance since January. That could be unleashing pent-up demand for medical procedures that are boosting out-of-pocket household spending on co-payments and prescriptions. Those who enrolled in more comprehensive insurance to meet Obamacare requirements may also be spending on newly-covered services.

“There will be a one-time bump in health spending,” said Larry Levitt, a senior vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation in Menlo Park, California, a nonprofit group focused on health care. “There’s some new money coming into the system from the government, and we may also see people shifting money away from other goods into health care as they get better access to services.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-17/high-frequency-fightback-starts-in-foreign-exchange-currencies.html

Foreign-exchange dealers say they have the solution to the high-frequency trades eroding banks’ profits across financial markets.

A currency-dealing platform known as ParFX, established in 2011 by firms from Deutsche Bank AG to Citigroup Inc., was approached last month by banks asking if its technology could be applied to other asset classes, Chief Executive Officer Dan Marcus said. The system works by pausing trades at random to prevent dealers with high-powered computers from jumping in front of investors and gaining an advantage.

“These banks do need to trade foreign exchange because it’s their business and they’re hedging their currency exposure across the world,” London-based Marcus said in an April 15 interview. “They would rather trade in an environment that they can trust.”

High-frequency trading is coming under unprecedented scrutiny with the publication last month of Michael Lewis’s book “Flash Boys,” investigations by U.S. regulators and tough new rules approved this week by the European Union. Dealers use technology to execute orders in thousandths or even millionths of a second, profiting from tiny discrepancies in security prices across different trading venues.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-16/germany-gets-tough-on-russia-as-broader-sanctions-eyed.html

Angela Merkel wasn’t in a hurry to inflict economic pain on Russia. Cautious, pragmatic and mindful of German business ties to the country, the chancellor tried to defuse the Ukraine crisis through back-channel diplomacy and frequent phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Those efforts failed -- and now Merkel looks ready to embrace the tougher sanctions that some U.S. politicians have been pushing for, Bloomberg Businessweek reports in its April 21 edition.

In mid-April, Germany stopped granting licenses for arms exports to Russia and put on hold a 700 million-euro ($970 million) satellite-technology sale by Airbus Group NV (AIR), according to two people familiar with the negotiations.

Europe “shouldn’t be filled with fear” that sanctions might provoke retaliation, Merkel told a convention of her Christian Democratic Union party in Berlin on April 5.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_UNEMPLOYMENT_BENEFITS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-04-17-08-54-16

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment benefits last week rose 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 304,000. Jobless claims continue to be near pre-recession levels despite the slight increase.

The Labor Department said Thursday that the four-week average of applications, a less volatile measure, fell 4,750 to 312,000. That average has fallen from 357,500 applications over the past 12 months. It is the lowest four-week average since October 2007, just two months before the Great Recession started.

Applications are a proxy for layoffs. The current level of claims suggests that employers are holding on to their workers with the expectation of stronger economic growth ahead.

The modest level of claims occurs during the government's survey week for the April employment report. It indicates job gains of "200,000-plus" this month, said Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_WALL_STREET?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-04-17-09-13-29

Stocks are headed for a fourth gain in a row after several big-name U.S. companies reported encouraging first-quarter results. PepsiCo and Goldman Sachs are among the companies reporting earnings that were better than investors were expecting.

KEEPING SCORE: Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose two points, or 0.1 percent, to 1,855 as of 9 a.m. Eastern time Thursday. Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 13 points, also 0.1 percent, to 16,344. Nasdaq composite index futures rose 12 points, or 0.4 percent, to 3,514.

EARNINGS, THE GOOD: General Electric described the economic situation as "positive" and said its industrial division was doing well. PepsiCo reported higher income as the company slashed costs and sold more snacks around the world. Both stocks rose 2 percent in pre-market trading. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley also rose in pre-market trading after reporting higher income than analysts had forecast. Goldman rose 2 percent and Morgan Stanley rose 3 percent.

EARNINGS, THE NOT SO GOOD: Mattel fell 2 percent after the toy maker said weak sales of Barbie and markdowns to clear out excess inventory left over from a sluggish holiday season led to an unexpected loss in the first three months of the year. UnitedHealth Group fell 2 percent after the leading health insurance provider said its income slid 8 percent in the first quarter as fees and funding cuts from the health care overhaul dented the company's performance.

THE ECONOMY: The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment benefits last week rose 2,000 to 304,000. That was less than analysts were expecting and a sign that layoffs aren't increasing rapidly. The number of weekly claims continues to be near pre-recession levels despite the slight increase.

I'm trying to find an article that was posted on DU.

My memory is failing me and I really don't have many details.

I think the article was from the nymag.com website, but I could be wrong.

The article was about a guy who gained entrance to (crashed?) a party of some society of the elites in New York. There was even a name for this society.

Sorry...that's all I can remember.

If any of this rings a bell and you can help, I'd appreciate it. I realize I'm not giving you much to go on.

I didn't bookmark it and I'm trying to find it.

TIA.

eta: I think the article was within the last six months and I'm pretty sure Huffington Post had it on its website.

My memory is failing too, but I'll try to dig it up.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/02/i-crashed-a-wall-street-secret-society.html

that the drop was held at 16 points. Can't wait for Friday!

I got a hot topic for this Easter weekend. It's controversial, scandalous, the works. See you Friday night!

Source: Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration

Read More: http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/eta20140630.pdf

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending April 12, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 304,000, an increase of 2,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 2,000 from 300,000 to 302,000. The 4-week moving average was 312,000, a decrease of 4,750 from the previous week's revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since October 6, 2007 when it was 302,000. The previous week's average was revised up by 500 from 316,250 to 316,750.

There were no special factors impacting this week's initial claims.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.1 percent for the week ending April 5, unchanged from the previous week's unrevised rate of 2.1 percent. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending April 5 was 2,739,000, a decrease of 11,000 from the previous week's revised level. This is the lowest level for insured unemployment since December 15, 2007 when it was 2,737,000. The previous week's level was revised down by 26,000 from 2,776,000 to 2,750,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,785,250, a decrease of 32,500 from the previous week's revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since January 19, 2008 when it was 2,777,500. The previous week's average was revised down by 6,500 from 2,824,250 to 2,817,750.