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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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time
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052289
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05228900.023
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1990-09-17
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BUSINESS, Page 82What, Me Worry?
To the ordinary citizen, a big jump in the unemployment rate
seems like bad news. What could possibly be good about the fact
that almost 400,000 more people were out of work in April than in
the preceding month? After all, that painful increase hurts not
only those without jobs and their families, but the malls and
supermarkets where they shop as well. Yet when the Government
reported that joblessness rose by 0.3% to 5.3% in April, financial
insiders applauded, the bond market surged while stocks staged a
brief but sharp rally, and publications ranging from USA Today to
investment-house tip sheets heralded the increase as "good news."
What gives?
The answer lies in the contrary way that economists have come
to view the world during the long expansion of the 1980s. Instead
of bemoaning the big leap in the number of unsuccessful job
seekers, the experts cheered it as a sign of a slowdown that
lessens the chance of a new burst of inflation. "No matter how bad
the news,;" observes Pierre Rinfret, a Manhattan-based economic
consultant, "the market will find something good in it." Just as
the market, which seems to obey none of the usual rules, almost
always manages to find something bad in the very best of news.