BLS Says 162,000 Jobs Were Created in August, Mostly Teachers, Waiters, and Bartenders; Gas Prices Higher; Government Economics a Sham

Just because Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh is adamant about the central bank not giving forward guidance on its policies, his tight-lipped approach doesn't necessarily apply to the people surrounding him.

On Thursday, Fed governor Christopher Waller spilled the beans, remarking that he would be inclined to keep interest rates on hold at the September FOMC meeting if the data showed inflation was cooling.

That got Wall Street's hopes up and sent stocks soaring.

Friday morning's Non-farm Payrolls for August might have thrown some shade on those prospects, as the BLS reported strong job gains in August.

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 162,000 in August, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment increased in food services and drinking places and in local government education. The information industry lost jobs.

Teachers are back on the job and restaurants and juke joints are hiring. Makes perfect sense, except that teachers jobs almost always increase in august and September and there's conflicting data showing that more and more people can't afford dining out or binging at their local clubs.

The news from the BLS sent stock futures screaming lower along with precious metals. Spot silver dropped to as low as $64.79. Gold dropped by more than $100, before rebounding slightly to around $4,380.

This, of course, is all nonsense. All markets are rigged by entities behind the scenes, mostly tentacles of the U.S. government, which continues to try desperately to keep the dollar the world's reserve currency, when everybody knows it is nothing more than paper backed by empty promises.

Inflation isn't going away. Gas at the pump stands at a national average of $4.12 per gallon. Employment has been stagnant since 2021. The BLS will revise it's monthly figures, as it did with June and July:

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for June was revised up by 11,000, from +20,000 to +31,000, and the change for July was revised up by 44,000, from -23,000 to +21,000. With these revisions, employment in June and July combined is 55,000 higher than previously reported.

The government just lies about everything in order to keep you working, paying taxes, contributing your labor to Social Security and Medicare black holes, all along running budget deficits of $2 trillion a year.

Not to be too blunt about it, but the U.S. economy is a sham, the stock market entirely broken and the American people are wage and tax slaves living in an open air plantation, given just enough food and pleasure (bread and circuses, as in ancient Rome) to keep them happy.

The government is bankrupt. So is the Federal Reserve.

Have a nice weekend. Monday is Labor Day.

At the Close, Thursday, September 3, 2026:
Dow: 53,686.11, +624.16 (+1.18%)
NASDAQ: 26,584.06, +366.23 (+1.40%)
S&P 500: 7,747.71, +81.11 (+1.06%)
NYSE Composite: 24,720.15, +224.60 (+0.92%)