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Weekly Wrap: The 8.6% unemployment, the euro fix

Kai Ryssdal Dec 2, 2011

Kai Ryssdal talks with Leigh Gallagher of Fortune Magazine and Cardiff Garcia from FT Alphaville about this week on Wall Street and beyond.

On why the stock markets didn’t react to the news of the lowered unemployment rate:

Cardiff Garcia: I think the details were mixed, number one. And number two, because to the extent that this begins to instill confidence in people, I think it’s a very kind of fragile confidence. Because what this report really showed was that things are getting a little bit better, but just not nearly quickly enough given the severity of the recession that we’re still trying to recover from. So there’s an awful lot going on, I think markets are still very nervous about what’s happening on Europe. And it’s going to be a pretty busy month, even for the holidays.

On whether liquidity injection is the solution to solving the eurozone debt crisis:

Leigh Gallagher: That’s definitely not the solution. It’s a band-aid. It’s like the European version of a band-aid. It buys more time. We are a lot closer to the edge than we were in this crisis six months ago, or 18 months ago when it first started. So I think the relief from that is what sent the markets soaring.

For more analysis, listen to the audio above.

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