Let it not be said that rain or snow or a big freaking Hurricane will stop the U.S. government from issuing economic statistics on time regardless of the quality or even existence of data to calculate.  Such was the case this morning when the initial unemployment claims for the week were released and the number rose to a whopping 439,000, which is, of course, a gross estimate as a number of states didn’t or can’t report figures due to both after-effects of inclement weather and a federal holiday on Monday.

Regardless, now that the election is over the statistical catch up work can be done for all of the Keynesian model builders to re-assess their assumptions and realize what anyone with half a brain or who has looked for a job that didn’t require a paper hat knows, the U.S. economy is a complete and utter mess and being held together by an ever-increasing level of debt.  With debt during a debt deflation comes demand destruction and no amount of crying “MULTIPLIER! MULTIPLIER” will make it go away.

This week has been brutal for anyone looking to make a dime doing anything other than shorting Apple.  I almost feel bad for shareholders at this point.  The hedge funds are so desperate for any kind of volatility that the only place they can get it right now is the hedge-fund hotel of the NASDAQ and Gold.  And Gold is only on that list because of the only vestige of the Bernanke Put left in existence.  These guys know the Fed wants Gold kept under wraps despite the physical demand and they know they can short it to oblivion without much threat of getting religion on the short-squeeze going the other way.

This is a mix of Obama fear of raising cap gains and dividend taxes and the Fed playing fast and loose with their definition of QE.