Business Wire (11/13/2013)

Corporate Resource Services Inc. reported $209 million in revenue for the third quarter of 2013, up 15.8% from $180.4 million during the same period last year. Net income was $4.3 million, up 207.14% compared with $1.4 million in the third quarter of 2012. Net income available to shareholders was $4.4 million, up 216% from $1.4 million in the third quarter of 2012.

Bloomberg (11/14/13) Victoria Stilwell

More Americans than forecast filed for unemployment benefits last week. Jobless claims in the week ended Nov. 9 declined 2,000 to 339,000 from a revised 341,000, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had forecasted a drop to 330,000. Numbers from five states were estimates due to the Veterans Day holiday-shortened week. The less-volatile four-week moving average of claims decreased to 344,000 last week from 349,750 the week before.

Wall Street Journal (11/13/13) Victoria McGrane

Speaking before a U.S. Senate Banking Committee confirmation hearing on Nov. 14, U.S. Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Janet Yellen, who is President Obama’s pick to replace Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke in January, is expected to say that while the U.S. economy has strengthened since the 2008 financial crisis, it still needs help from the central bank. Her statement issued before the hearing did not contain any new signals about Fed policy, but it did outline several points to defend the Fed’s $85 billion-a-month bond-buying program.

Yellen expects the inflation rate to remain low for some time, below the Fed’s 2% target, but she is expected to point out that the central bank is failing to hit the mark on its dual mandate of pursuing maximum employment and stabilizing prices. Unemployment increased to 7.3% last month. Senators on both sides of the aisle expect her to win confirmation.

Wall Street Journal (11/13/13) Jon Hilsenrath

U.S. Federal Reserve officials are considering whether to boost their commitment to keep short-term interest rates near zero as part of their work to grow the economy. The Fed repeatedly has stated it won’t raise short-term interest rates from near zero until the unemployment rate declines to below 6.5%. However, the Fed is now considering keeping rates low until the unemployment rate declines to 5.5%.

“The labor market remains disturbingly weak. The good news is that, with low inflation, the [Fed] has considerable monetary-policy capacity at its disposal with which to address this problem,” says Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota. Some Fed officials think the threshold should be lowered because the unemployment rate may be overstating the improvement in the labor market, which may be the result of people leaving the labor force altogether.

Wall Street Journal (11/13/13) David Wessel

The International Monetary Fund recently gathered some leading economists to consider the economic policy lessons learned over the past five years. The U.S. is learning how to prevent contagious financial crises and how to manage very slow growth. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers says the chance of another economic crisis is much less significant than the “continuing crisis” of “more kids living at home because they can’t get jobs after they graduate from school than there have been in decades.”

According to leading U.S. Federal Reserve economists, the financial crisis and its fallout did so much damage that even at full strength the U.S. economy is capable of producing 7% less now than it would have been capable if the crisis had never happened, resulting in a loss of $1 trillion in goods and services each year.