Bullish jobs report good news for Yellen, Hillary

IT'S safe to bet that two of the most powerful women in the United States were smiling after the US Department of Labour issued its monthly jobs report last Friday, which indicated that the American job market has almost fully recovered from the economic devastation wrecked by the Great Recession.

Indeed, the report that showed that US jobs were surging, and in particular that there has been an upward pressure on American wages (which have risen 2.5 per cent over the last 12 months, the fastest pace since 2009), came just in time to allow Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen to move towards raising interest rates at the meeting of the central bank's Federal Open Market Committee next month.

The balance of power among the policymakers is expected to shift during the December policymaking committee from the inflation doves - who have been warning for several months that the economic recovery has yet to enter full swing - into the direction of the inflation hawks who want to start tightening US monetary policy and end the easing that started in 2…