JOBLESS CLAIMS UP, but don’t worry, it’s good news: “New claims for jobless benefits moved higher last week, but a decline in the four-week average to a nearly 2-1/2 year low indicated a trend toward better labor market conditions remained intact.” I don’t remember them looking that hard for silver linings when Bush was President . . . . Of course, with unemployment half what it is today, they didn’t have to.

UPDATE: Reader Kenny Alwes writes:

When Bush was president, we would get headlines announcing that the “Economy Only Creates 139,000 New Jobs” with a subhead wondering if that meant we were in a recession. Now losing a quarter of million jobs is presented as the herald of a new golden age.

Sometimes I think our media is more interested in spin than in facts.

Ya think? And reader Edward Craig emails: “They said on CNBC this morning that jobless claims will be probably be revised upward because states laid off so many workers they lack the staff to process them fast enough.” It’s Ayn Rand’s world. We’re just living in it.