Get a Job

NEW YORK CITY: About the only thing other than Alan Greenspan that seems able to slow an exuberant stock market right now is a shrinking unemployment rate. So after the government released a report this morning showing that the nation's jobless rate dropped to 4.8 percent in July, matching a 24-year low, the Dow promptly fell nearly 120 points. While the White House was quick to claim credit ("The strategy of balancing the budget, while investing in our people and selling more American products around the world, has helped to produce sustained prosperity for Americans," Clinton said), markets slowed out of fears that a scarcity of qualified workers would lead to wage inflation. By day's end, investors were once again Bulls, and the Dow finished the day down only 28.57 points at 8,194.04.