Blog Posts by Stacy Curtin

Government -- on every level -- used to be the one employer most notable for offering the best job security. But that is not the case anymore.

State and local governments have been shedding jobs to the tune of about 23,000 jobs a month for the last three months, while the private sector has been gaining ground, albeit in small bits. In May, the public sector lost 29,000 jobs and now, a new forecast by IHS Global Insight expects roughly 110,000 more government jobs to be lost in the third quarter of this year. (See: The May Jobs Report Highlights Troubling Trends)

"Though tax revenue is starting to rise, states are still wrestling with multi-billion-dollar budget gaps. Federal stimulus funds helped minimize job cuts until now, but that money essentially runs out on June 30," CNN reports. "So states are planning to slash funds for education, social services and local governments, as well as downsize their payrolls even more, in the coming fiscal year."

Meanwhile, Crain's is reporting

The world maybe headed for another recession, but there seems to be no better time to be a millionaire or billionaire.

Global wealth hit a record $121.8 trillion high in 2010 or $20 trillion above pre-recession levels, according to a new report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG). And, the number of millionaire households jumped 12.2 percent to about 12.5 million.

The trend will continue up to about $162 trillion by 2015, "driven by the performance of the capital markets and the growth of GDP in countries around the world. Wealth will grow fastest in emerging markets," says the report.

There are a couple of bright spots for all of you out there that do not fall in to the uber-rich category.

The United States is by far home to the most millionaires, according to BCG. In 2010, 5.2 million households in the U.S. had more than a million in assets under management compared to 1.5 million in Japan and 1.1 million in China.

And here's the really good news. If you want to make your millions,

This month marks the two-year anniversary of the "recovery" that began in June 2009. But you can easily be forgiven if you haven't noticed.

Why?

It seems like week after week there is new evidence highlighting the decline of America's middle class.

The latest is a report by the Employment Policy Research Network which found that over the last thirty years, American workers have increased labor productivity by 78 percent, while wages for many have fallen or have remained stagnant.

Here are some examples:

After years of consistently high unemployment in this country, the job situation is finally start to look up and the hope is this positive trend will continue. (See: The Employment Report: The Private Sector is in Good Health)

Conventional wisdom says employers are looking for employees who have the perfect skill set for the job at hand. However, new research conducted with the help of the world's top employers and scholars overwhelmingly suggests otherwise.

In the new book, Put Your Mindset to Work: The One Asset You Really Need to Win and Keep the Job You Love, Harvard lecturer and PhD Paul Stoltz and co-author James Reed reveal that employers are most interested in candidates who have a certain mindset — regardless of skill set.

Actually, a resounding 96 percent of employers say they would prefer to "hire, promote, pay and retain" people with a particular mindset over a desired skill set. And 98 percent of employers thought it more likely that a person with the right mindset could

More signs today that the global economy could be slowing as predicted by the Economic Cycle Research Institute last week. (See: Global Slowdown to Hit by Summer, Even for U.S., Says Achuthan)

Here at home, there was no revision to the first quarter's sluggish 1.8% GDP growth. Yet personal consumption fell to 2.2% from the previously reported 2.7%. And April durable goods orders were also much weaker than expected yesterday, falling 3.6%.

As for the rest of the world, the OECD just released its forecast for global growth. The overall tone of the report was positive, but there were some very big words of caution.

"This is a delicate moment for the global economy, and the crisis is not over until our economies are creating enough jobs again," said OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría. "There is also some concern that if downside risks reinforce each other, their cumulative impact could weaken the recovery significantly, possibly triggering stagflation in some advanced economies."

Here's

Amazon is apparently sick of getting clobbered by Apple's iTunes in digital music sales. The e-commerce giant, which used to be the go-to place for music online, just offered a startling one-day special, selling Lady Gaga's new album at 99 cents a copy.

The album wholesales for around $9, so this meant that Amazon was briefly losing about $8 per sale. Estimates for the album's first-day sales are about 250,000-350,000 copies, so assuming Amazon sold a third of those copies, it might have lost $800,000 on the promotion.

After the one-day sale, moreover, Amazon began selling the album for $6.99, which means it's still losing money on every sale. This is in contrast to Apple, which is selling the basic album and an expanded version for much higher prices.

So, what's Amazon up to?

It is presumably trying to raise awareness for its own music downloading store, using the Lady Gaga promotion as a loss-leader to get folks in the door.

This is a typical move: Retailers often offer

No matter what the topic of debate on Capitol Hill these days, one thing is for certain: It's going to be brutal.

While "gridlock is good" was a mantra of the 1990s, the chasm between today's political parties is causing great uncertainty for individual investors and businesses, says John Mauldin, author of Endgame.

Gone are the days of relying heavily on long-term valuations, inflation/deflation, currencies, price-to-earnings ratios and business plans. "It seems like we have to pay more and more attention to politicians and what they are doing and less and less to our economic theory," he writes in his weekly e-letter, Thoughts from the Frontline.

Historically, politicians did not engage in too much "stupid" behavior, Mauldin says. The most extreme thing Congress might do is marginally change tax rates. "The problem [today] is we've come to the endgame," he tells Aaron in the interview above. "When you are in a deleveraging period, which we are in now, the rules change."

As the U.S.