
America keeps adding jobs but we're still not back to normal
CNN
The US jobs recovery has picked up steam again in the final months of the year, bringing some good news in the face of persistently rising prices and a new Covid variant.
Economists polled by Refinitiv expect another sizable jobs gain in Friday's November employment report — 550,000 positions. If that holds true, it would be the biggest monthly gain since July, when more than a million jobs were added.
But even so, America's labor market is still not back to its pre-pandemic strength. If the forecasts are right, the nation would still be down more than 3.5 million jobs compared to February 2020.

Global stock markets have largely shrugged off President Donald Trump’s renewed tariff campaign. In commodities markets, however, tariff threats have sent the price of copper soaring to all-time highs — signaling the potential for higher tariff-induced prices for a metal with critical uses across the US economy.

This past April, when President Donald Trump started flirting with the notion of firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell, stocks and the dollar tumbled because investors worried that even talking about such a move crossed a red line. You can’t even joke about that, the Wall Street intellectuals told us — the central bank’s independence is simply too important.