What exactly is going on in the U.S. job market? The AP recently ran an interesting story on the trials and tribulations of those looking for work in the current economic environment:

"They're [job seekers] running into a trend that took root during the recession. Companies became more productive by doing more with fewer workers."

"Some asked staffers to take on a broader array of duties — duties that used to be spread among multiple jobs."

"Now, someone who hopes to get those jobs must meet the new requirements. As a result, some database administrators now have to manage network security."

So the constant pressure on managers to "do more with less" seems to be translating into actual shifts in hiring policies and practices. And that not only has a negative effect on those seeking jobs, but also on companies that are finding it more difficult to fill the open jobs they already have. The article continues:

Despite the growing chorus of Democratic lawmakers calling for a nationwide moratorium on foreclosures, the Obama administration is opposed to a freeze.

David Axelrod, Obama's top adviser, went on CBS’s “Face the Nation” program on Sunday and announced the administration's positions. Basically following the same line as the Wall Street Journal editorial page — that the foreclosure crisis is just some meaningless paperwork screw-up — Axelrod emphasized the need to provide certainty to the housing market and to get the foreclosure mills up and running again "very, very quickly."

Nobel Peace Prize laureate and United Nations diplomat Martti Ahtisaari was hoping that this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner would be a woman, maybe even his friend Mary Robinson, the former Irish president.

“But all of them are extremely well qualified,” Ahtisaari said of his long list of friends who could be in the running for the prize. When the results were announced Friday morning, it was Liu Xiaobo, China’s leading democracy advocate, who received the honor.

I got the chance to speak exclusively with him in Washington D.C. where he told me he didn't even know he was going to win the honor. He was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 2008 \(between Gore and Obama\) for his efforts on several continents to resolve international conflicts. In Kosovo, he helped to resolve a long-running dispute that ended a three-decade conflict in which 15,000 people died.

For the first time in living memory, government spending has become a major issue. In the past, Republicans would run against taxes and Democrats against spending cuts, with neither party really running hard against spending. This had the predictable result of lowering taxes, raising spending, and inflating the public debt.

Now, thanks largely to the Tea Party movement, we have an actual honest-to-God public outcry against government spending. This is changing the political play book for both parties. I decided to speak with two think "number crunchers" to ask about whether Congress will change its spending ways. Here's what Bill Beach, director of The Heritage Foundation's Center for Data Analysis, and Tad DeHaven, budget analyst on federal and state budget issues for the Cato Institute, had to say.

Futures up ahead of earnings week; bond markets, federal offices closed for Columbus Day holiday (Wall Street Journal)

Ezra Klein has a great interview with Janet Tavakoli, the founder of Tavakoli Structured Finance, on Foreclosure Gate.

Ezra Klein: What’s happening here? Why are we suddenly faced with a crisis that wasn’t apparent two weeks ago?

Janet Tavakoli: This is the biggest fraud in the history of the capital markets. And it’s not something that happened last week. It happened when these loans were originated, in some cases years ago. Loans have representations and warranties that have to be met. In the past, you had a certain period of time, 60 to 90 days, where you sort through these loans and, if they’re bad, you kick them back. If the documentation wasn’t correct, you’d kick it back. If you found the incomes of the buyers had been overstated, or the houses had been appraised at twice their worth, you’d kick it back. But that didn’t happen here. And it turned out there were loan files that were missing required documentation. Part of putting the deal together is that the securitization professional, and in this case that’s banks like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, has to watch for this stuff. It’s called perfecting the security, and it’s not optional.

Bank of America's foreclosure freeze chills housing market (CNBC)

Meet the most prominent Goldman Sachs alumns (CNBC)

Goldman's Director Of Technology on HFT and the flash crash (Clusterstock)

Barack Obama’s quick decision Thursday not to sign the Interstate Notarization Act was announced after CNBC and others raised an alarm that the bill might be a covert "bailout" of the foreclosure documentation scandal that has ensnared many large mortgage lenders.

The foreclosure scandal is easy to explain. In many states, banks can avoid an evidentiary trial in a foreclosure proceeding by having bank officers sign a notarized affidavit affirming the particulars of the home loan and the borrower’s delinquency. As part of the affidavit, the loan officer must attest to personal knowledge and review of the loan documentation.

It turns out that, at least in some cases, the loan officers were merely signing the statements without reviewing the documentation—thus falsifying the affidavits and fraudulently obtaining foreclosure orders.

What on earth happened during the last forty-eight hours on the so-called “mortgage foreclosure” bill?

Earlier in the week, it seemed no one outside of wonky Washington policy circles had heard of — or cared about — the bill . And then it became a political hot potato that led the Wall Street Journal’s website , and caused the liberal blogosphere to become little short of apoplectic. By midday yesterday, John Carney’s report on the story included an excerpt from a blog post on the White House website explaining that the president would not be signing the bill into law.

So what happened here?

With the current well-known climate of political hostility in Washington — it seems every other story about the legislative agenda mentions “partisanship” and “polarization” or even “divisiveness” — how did a bipartisan bill pass with such little notice?

Bank of America announced today that they too will halt foreclosure proceedings, as information came to light about the use of so-called robo-signers in the processing of mortgage documentation. BofA’s move comes among increased political pressure by lawmakers to suspend foreclosure proceedings.