US jobs: Are we seeing the return of goldilocks?

US

Back in the old bull market days, investors cheered the goldilocks environment.

The economy was growing strongly which supported ever higher equity prices and all data that came in just right was cheered, ie not too hot which could cause the Fed to raise interest rates, nor too cold which may have meant that corporate earnings would not grow quick enough. Fast forward to 2012, and we have the Fed (and virtually every other major and minor central bank) printing money as fast as the printing press can handle at a time when the economy is growing – just. With the Fed’s focus on bringing down the unemployment rate substantially (at least to below 7%), and recent data s...