Look beyond the jobless claims to find the truth about the US economy

It may look strong, but retail sales are weak, productivity is poor, growth modest and the labour market is hardly racing ahead

The evidence from the world's biggest economy looks conclusive. Americans filing new jobless claims fell to 255,000 last week - the lowest figure since Richard Nixon was president during the final few months of the post-second world war boom 42 years ago.

Fewer claims for unemployment benefit means the labour market is running hot, which in turn means the economy is overheating, which in turn means the Federal Reserve made a strategic blunder when it confounded Wall Street by declining to raise rates in September. Simple, right?