After a brief disturbance due to the hurricanes this fall, initial jobless claims have collapsed back to 225k (down 11k last week), hovering near their lowest level since 1973...

Update: Southbay Reserach notes that the main driver behind the drop in claims is California which saw a one-week drop of -6K (not seasonally adjusted). Typically California claims remain elevated as farm workers get laid off. Added to that wave are the massive fires in Southern California which closed businesses for a week. However, because of the fires, many workers were unable to file claims.

In other words - claims will jump next week when the firess are put out.

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So the question is... What's everyone complaining about?

By the looks of this chart, everything is awesome! Probably a good time for a trillion-dollar-deficit busting fiscal stimulus tax reform package?