Here are some positive news articles for the week ending November 2, 2012

Commerce Department Reports Housing-Start Surge

PRWeb – Fri, Oct 19, 2012

Waterfront Properties and Club Communities’ northern Palm Beach County neighborhoods are experiencing new construction in addition to renovations.

JUPITER, Fla. (PRWEB) October 19, 2012

September saw an increase of 15 percent from August in all-important housing starts – the most significant surge since July of 2008.

Latest Jobs Report Shows Persistent Economic Growth

By CATHERINE RAMPELL

Published: November 2, 2012

The American job market is looking a little stronger than had been feared just a few months ago, according to the government’s final labor snapshot before the presidential election.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

• Economix Blog: Comparing Recessions and Recoveries(November 2, 2012)
• Economix Blog: The Recovery Spreads(November 2, 2012)

• Editorial: Jobs Are Growing, Not Stagnating(November 3, 2012)

Whoever wins the election on Tuesday might even inherit an accelerating economy in 2013, if (and that is a big if) Congress is able to smooth over that pesky fiscal cliff in the few weeks after the election.

The nation’s employers added 171,000 positions on net in October, the Labor Department reported on Friday, and more jobs than initially estimated in August and September. Hiring was broad-based, with just nearly every industry except state government adding jobs. The unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 7.9 percent in October, from 7.8 percent in September, but for a good reason: more workers joined the labor force and so officially counted as unemployed.

None of this makes for a game-changer in the presidential race, analysts said. But it appeared to provide some relief for President Obama, whose campaign could have been sideswiped by bad news from the volatile monthly jobs report. With the latest numbers, the economy finally shows a net gain of jobs during his presidency.

According to the Commerce Department, which released the figures Oct. 17, the number of new builds for the year topped out at 872,000 units. Housing experts jumped at the good news, and said it’s further proof of an ever-growing market recovery.

According to a Gallup report, also released Friday:

“The U.S. Payroll to Population employment rate (P2P), as measured by Gallup, was 45.7 percent for the month of October, up from 45.1 percent in September, and reflecting the highest percentage of Americans with good jobs since Gallup began daily tracking of U.S. employment in 2010.”

Mitt Romney, on the election trail, suggests that the U.S. Economy is headed into another, Bush like, recession.

Evidence continues to emerge that Romney is one of the most dishonest, duplicitous candidates to ever seek the presidency.

He criticized Obama for telling then-President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia that he would have “more flexibility” to deal with sensitive issues between the two countries after he won re-election. Romney said this was particularly troubling given that Russia “is without question our No. 1 geopolitical foe.”

However, according to a report on Friday in The New York Times, Romney’s son Matt recently traveled to Russia and delivered a message to President Vladimir Putin:

“Mr. Romney told a Russian known to be able to deliver messages to Mr. Putin that despite the campaign rhetoric, his father wants good relations if he becomes president, according to a person informed about the conversation.”

It sounds as though he was signaling that Mitt would do exactly what he had castigated Obama for: operate with “more flexibility” after the election.

This is the kind of hypocrisy that just makes you shake your head in disbelief.

According to a Gallup poll released on Wednesday, Americans expect Obama to be re-elected by 54 percent to 34 percent. Among those believing that Obama will win were most independents and almost a fifth of Republicans.

I paid $3.18 for a gallon of gas, last night, in Cloquet.

Dollar rises to 1-month high against euro after strong US jobs data

Article by: Associated Press
• Updated: November 2, 2012 - 2:58 P.M.

NEW YORK - The dollar jumped to a one-month high against the euro Friday after U.S. employers added more jobs last month than economists had expected.

The Labor Department said U.S. employers added 171,000 jobs in October, and hiring was stronger in August and September than first thought. Economists expected a gain of 121,000 jobs, according to FactSet. The unemployment rate edged up to 7.9 percent from 7.8 percent as more people started looking for jobs.

The euro fell to $1.2829 in late trading Friday from $1.2939 late Thursday. The euro fell as low as $1.282 Friday, the lowest it has been since Oct. 1.

The British pound fell to $1.6021 from $1.6125.

The dollar rose to 80.42 Japanese yen from 80.18 Japanese yen and to 0.9411 Swiss franc from 0.9321 Swiss franc.