In the currency market, the dollar edged still higher against the euro. Late Friday, the euro was trading at $1.3774 vs. $1.3796 on Thursday. Of course, all the day’s attention was closely focused on Washington, where the House solidly overturned its Monday vote on the bailout bill, passing it 263-171–perhaps because Paulson’s original 3-page proposal morphed into a 450-page behemoth laden with pork. President Bush quickly signed this monstrosity into law.

The fact that the proposal had the enthusiastic support of George Bush, Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke, John McCain, Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi is sufficient reason to question it, right there.

The hubbub over the bailout vote may have pushed the day’s grim economic news to the back burner, but it should be noted that the Labor Department reported that non-farm payrolls declined by 159,000 jobs in September.

That was way higher than the 110,000 loss expected by economists, and the worst showing since March 2003. It also marked the ninth consecutive month of negative job creation. 760,000 jobs have officially been lost this year, although the true number is likely higher because of the BLS’s “birth/death adjustment.”

While the unemployment rate held steady at 6.1%, in line with expectations, the true story is almost certainly worse. If the unemployment measure had included discouraged workers, the rate rose from 10.7% to 11%, the highest level in 14½ years.

Looking at Friday’s data, Josh Shapiro, an economist for MFR Inc., wrote: “Whatever the government might or might not do to try to bail out the financial system, a consumer-led recession is upon us, and it promises to be a serious one.”

Source: Dollar moves higher as bailout bill passes - Rise comes despite grisly employment numbers.