by Bennett Daviss If you’re a skilled and careful driver, your electric vehicle’s battery bank might go 300,000 or even 400,000 miles before you need to part with $5,000 or more to replace it. But now car companies and battery makers are about to keep that money in your bank account for another 600,000 miles...
Author: support
MASKS ESSENTIAL TO ECONOMIC RECOVERY, FED BANKER SAYS
The U.S.’s inability to control the spread of the COVID virus is hampering the economic recovery, said Eric Rosengren, chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, on 12 August. “Common-sense precautions, such as wearing masks… are much less costly than having to shut down whole sectors of the economy,” he said. “We must get...
SMALL COMPANIES FARED WORSE THAN LARGE IN SHUTDOWN
Again, connoting the income disparity between the rich and middle class, big and small, companies listed on the Russell 2000 of small-cap publicly-traded companies collectively lost $1.1 billion in 2020’s second quarter, compared to $18 billion in profits a year earlier, reported FactSet, a data company. Goodyear Tire & Rubber lost $696 million in the...
HOW THE MIDDLE CLASS IS SHRINKING
As the rich have gotten richer, America, once the “Land of Opportunity” is seeing its middle class shrinking smaller. Long before the COVID Panic pumped trillions more wealth into the bank accounts of the wealthiest, income growth for Americans in their prime working years has narrowed from 27 percent to 8 percent from 2002 to...
CONSUMER PRICES RISE IN JULY
In part as a result in response to July’s increase in consumer spending, the shortage of products, and supply chain disruptions, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.6 percent in July, equaling its rise in June and upsetting analysts’ forecast of a 0.3-percent hike. The rise was greater than June’s 0.2 percent and put consumer...
RETAIL SPENDING RISES AGAIN IN JULY
U.S. retail sales advanced 1.2 percent in July, the third consecutive monthly rise, the U.S. Department of Commerce reported. July sales were 1.7 percent above February’s, the month before the pandemic struck and the economy began to implode. Spending was heavy on appliances, electronics, health products, and restaurant meals. Last month, production at factories, mines,...
STATES, CITIES CUT SPENDING AS REVENUE DISAPPEARS
Without federal aid, state and local governments will lose about $500 billion in revenue over the next two years, lopping three points off the U.S. GDP, costing four million jobs, and hobbling any U.S. economic recovery, Moody’s Analytics concluded in a research report. And with less tax revenue coming in, there are forecasts states will...
U.S. BUDGET DEFICIT TOPS $2.8 TRILLION
The flood of federal stimulus and support dollars into the economy, combined with tax revenue lost as millions are jobless and businesses fail, has pushed the federal deficit to a record $2.8 trillion so far this fiscal year, which ends 30 September. The current year’s deficit is 224 percent greater than the $867 million logged...
REAL YIELDS ON BONDS GO NEGATIVE
In early August, real yields on U.S. bonds linked to inflation sank below -1 percent, a record low. The sinking yield reflected investors’ fears of a long, slow economic recovery and the abundance of dollars in world markets could ignite inflation. The negative yield continues to drive investors toward stocks and other assets that have...
MORE WAFFLING, MORE WAR
The Wall Street Journal, along with many in the mainstream media, published an article showing that presidential candidate Joe Biden and his new running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, have different views on a number of policy issues. On energy and climate, Ms. Harris has issued clear support of the Green New Deal while Mr. Biden...