Thursday morning headlines

Stocks taking off: A bunch of promising news this morning. Dow is up more than 150 points.

Jobless claims tumble: Weekly filings fell 37,000, to 391,000, the lowest level since April 2 and the first time they've fallen below 400,000 since Aug. 6. From AP:

Some of the improvement was due to technical factors related to the seasonal adjustment of the data, a Labor Department spokesman said. The spokesman also said some states reported higher applications in previous weeks due to Hurricane Irene. As a result, the drop "may not be as encouraging as it looks," said Paul Dales, an economist at Capital Economics. "Further falls will be needed before we can conclude a downward trend is underway."

GDP revised upward: Second-quarter growth was still very weak, at 1.3 percent on an annualized basis, but at least it was better than the 1 percent estimate made a month ago. Some economists had expected growth to be revised downward. (AP)

Bernanke calls unemployment "national crisis": Unusually strong words from the Fed chairman, who said in a speech that having so many people out of work for so long is unheard of. From Bloomberg:

The speech was Bernanke's first since the Fed announced on Sept. 21 that it would replace $400 billion of short-term debt in its portfolio with longer-term Treasuries in an effort to further reduce borrowing costs and strengthen the flagging economy. U.S. growth has stalled even as the Fed purchased $2.3 trillion in assets in two rounds of quantitative easing and held interest rates near zero since December 2008. "Monetary policy is not a panacea," Bernanke said. "There are certainly some areas where other policy makers could contribute," and "strong housing policies to help the housing markets recover would certainly be useful."

Double-dipping on state pensions: Turns out that political appointees to more than a dozen boards and commissions are exempt from a California law that forbids employees from drawing full-time government wages and state-administered retirement benefits at the same time. (LAT)

Germany approves higher bailout fund: Another small step in getting Europe's finances back in order. But a half-dozen euro zone countries still need to pass the plan. From the NYT:

Under the fretful gaze of investors, the meandering approval process has revealed ever more fissures, layers of decision making and complexity in Europe that adds up to a worrisome inability to react quickly and decisively to upheaval in fast-moving financial markets. Analysts have already said that the fund, even if it passes, will in all likelihood be too small to defend against attacks on deeply indebted European countries.

Bad news for Madoff investors: A federal judge has limited the power of court-appointed trustee Irving Picard in recovering billions of dollars for victims of the scamster. The trustee has been trying to get cash from investors who received more money than what they paid in. (NYT)

Interns sue "Black Swan" producers: They claim that the production company violated minimum wage and overtime laws by not paying them. From the NYT:

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan, claims that Fox Searchlight Pictures, the producer of "Black Swan," had the interns do menial work that should have been done by paid employees and did not provide them with the type of educational experience that labor rules require in order to exempt employers from paying interns.

Caruso resigns from Coliseum Commission: The L.A. developer and possible mayoral candidate cites a conflict of interest with his role as a USC trustee. He's been squabbling with other members of the scandal-plagued commission. (LAT)

L.A. bankruptcies keep falling: Individual and business filings dropped almost 9 percent in August compared with a year earlier. (OC Register)