It's a slow news day. (Kind of nice, isn't it?)

Did you know?

Bitcoin uses as much energy as the State of Washington. Some say it will revolutionize currency. Others say it's wasteful and its proponents clueless.

I think it's both.

You decide. I've linked to a great article about it in today's Sixpack.

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In other news, the jobs report was...underwhelming. Seems that maybe this latest wave of the delta COVID variant is putting some pressure on the economy and making employers think twice about hiring people they won't be able to bring to work.

Jobs report disappoints — only 235,000 positions added vs. expectations of 720,000

Job creation for August was a huge disappointment, with the economy adding just 235,000 positions, the Labor Department reported Friday.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for 720,000 new hires.

The unemployment rate dropped to 5.2% from 5.4%, in line with estimates.

August's total was the worst since January and comes with heightened fears of the pandemic and the impact that rising Covid cases could have on what has been so far a mostly robust recovery.

The month saw an increase of about 400,000 in those who said they couldn't work for pandemic-related reasons, pushing the total up to 5.6 million.

Still, the news wasn't all bad for jobs.

The previous two months saw substantial upward revisions, with July's total now at 1.053 million, up from the original estimate of 943,000, while June was bumped up to 962,000 from 938,000. For the two months, revisions added 134,000 to the initial counts.

Weekly jobless filings have fallen to their lowest levels since the early days of the pandemic in March 2020, but a large employment gap remains.

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Get the rest of the Morning Sixpack here. Like I said, it's a slow news day. Hopefully, I've captured some really interesting stories for you. Dig in and read them all!

Enjoy the long three-day weekend. Happy Labor Day!!!

Make it a great day!

Bill

🍺 PS - Buy me a beer to keep the Daily Grind News open for business!

🐒 PPS - Make sure you read the story about the monkeys overrunning houses in Bali!