President Barack Obama met with the Economic Recovery Advisory Board on Monday where they discussed unemployment. In an attempt to tame the high expectations of some Americans, Obama said job losses are likely to continue "for weeks and months to come" because hiring always lags behind in an economic recovery. "We just are not where we need to be yet" said Obama. "We've got a long way to go."

The timing of Obama's speech is not surprising. Unemployment hit a 26-year high of 9.8 percent in September. It is not entirely unlikely that Friday's unemployment report will show unemployment topping 10 percent. But despite this other reports are suggesting the possibility of a recovery. There have been improvements in manufacturing, construction and contracts to buy houses.

According to Obama, building a sustainable economy and shrinking the unemployment numbers is his administration's "overriding focus."

When you look at the unemployment rate for true unemployment and not for the polished unemployment rate produced by our government
it becomes obvious that unemployment is over 10%. But now, according to the White House, even the government's polished up statistics
show that unemployment will reach double-digit numbers within the next few months.
In an interview with Bloomberg, President Obama did acknowledge this rising unemployment rate saying that he expects the nation to reach
10 percent unemployment sometime this year.
In May the unemployment rate reached a 25-year high of 9.4 percent. The unemployment rate is expected to remain high through
this year and on into next year. Somehow, despite this high unemployment rate and the knowledge that consumer spending accounts
70 percent of the economy, there are still plenty of analysts who expect the recession to end by late summer.
Of course these people are the cheerleading-analysts that dominate the mainstream. If there is one thing we should all have learned about
mainstream analysis from our current depression, it is that it will always favor growth/spending over reality.

The stock market seems to losing steam these days. Home Depot says the worst of the housing crisis is over like they really know! Nonetheless they spoke good things and the market listened but not for long. Early gains gave way very quickly.

The financials which have been so strong lately are running out of gas.

The big story right now is interest rates and treasury bond sales. Tomorrow the 30 year goes to auction but the big story today was the 10 year note. The Treasury Department sold $19 billion but the yield shot up to 3.99% the most since last August.

This is not good for home sales and could very well dampen Home Depot's tremendous enthusiasm. Keep an eye on interest rates and keep and eye on yields. The bond market boys are much more savvy than stock investors.

Remember the bond market predicted the recession when all the stock market pundits were scoffing and saying that dreadful phrase, "everything is different this time!"

The trustee overseeing the liquidation of Bernard Madoff’s assets is being sued by some elderly investors who say the system used to pay claims against Madoff is unfair.

Six longtime investors had a combined life savings of $9 million dollars, but they may not get the compensation they feel they deserve because the investors technically spent more money than they had originally invested because they thought what they were spending was profit. Unfortunately there was no real profits so whether or not these people will get their savings back is officially up to the court system to decide.

Madoff, who is in jail is set to face trial on June 29 where he may face as much as 150 years.

On Tuesday the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced a settlement with former American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. Chairman, Chief Executive and company founder Michael Strauss. He has agreed to pay close to $2.5 million to settle federal charges of accounting fraud and concealing the company’s deteriorating finances as the subprime mortgage crisis began gaining momentum.

Michael Strauss is not the only one in the company accused of charges. Stephen Hozie the company’s former Chief Financial Officer (CFO) was also accused of accounting fraud and misleading investors. The charges are still pending.

Strauss, Hozie and former controller Robert Bernstein are also accused by the SEC of misleading American Home’s auditors about the company’s reserves against losses on mortgages.

According the an SEC official the executives were major players in the national mortgage meltdown.