At this rate, it’s remarkable that anybody’s going to work at all. Employers are facing a confluence of issues that are leading to staffing shortages during the summer months ranging from a surge in COVID-19 infections, a lingering labor shortage, and vacations. According to data released by the Census Bureau, about 4 million people called...
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TOP TREND DRAGFLATION: GLOBAL BUSINESS ACTIVITY SLOWS SHARPLY IN JULY
Business activity slowed worldwide last month, according to surveys of purchasing managers. In the U.S., the composite purchasing managers index (PMI) encompassing both goods and services, sank to 47.5 in July, compared with 52.3 in June. Ratings below 50 indicate economic contraction. “The downturn signaled a further loss of momentum across the economy not seen...
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WHEN THE ECONOMY FALLS JOBS GO WITH IT
Inflation and interest rate hikes are causing companies in many sectors to lay off employees. To illustrate the employment trends and the socioeconomic implications, each week we will list job losses. Initial claims totaled 251,000 for the week ended July 16, up 7,000 from the week before and above the 240,000 Dow Jones estimate. The...
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SPOTLIGHT: U.S. REAL ESTATE
HOUSING MARKET LEADING U.S. TOWARD RECESSION, NAHB CHIEF SAYS The weakening U.S. housing market is leading the country into a recession, Jerry Howard, CEO of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), said in a recent Bloomberg interview. Residential real estate makes up 15 to 18 percent of the U.S. GDP in a typical year,...
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SHERWIN-WILLIAMS CUTS OUTLOOK, WARNS OF “AGGRESSIVE” PRICE HIKES
International paint purveyor Sherwin-Williams cut its per-share earnings outlook for 2022 from around $9.50 a share to around $8.65, although it reported higher sales in terms of dollar volumes in its second quarter. The company’s share price dropped as much as 13.2 percent on the news, but later recovered to end down 8.8 percent on...
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DURABLE GOODS ORDERS ROSE 1.9 PERCENT IN JUNE
In June, the value of orders for pricey items designed to last three years, such as refrigerators and factory robots, grew by 1.9 percent to $272.6 billion, the U.S. commerce department reported. However, when defense spending is excluded, June’s gain was 0.4 percent. During the same month, inflation flew at 9.1 percent. Commerce department figures...
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CONSUMER CONFIDENCE LACKS
Consumer confidence fell in July for the third consecutive month, according to the Conference Board, an international nonprofit consortium of corporations. Consumers’ outlook fell to a rating of 95.7 last month from 98.4 in June and dropped below economists’ expectation of 97.2, freighted with concerns about rising food and fuel prices in particular. Buyers are...
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THE PENSION FUND PLUMMET
Plunging stock and bond prices have left state and local public pension funds with assets to cover only 77.9 percent of what they will eventually owe, Bloomberg reported. Last year, the funds had 84.8 percent of the money needed to meet their obligations, according to the nonprofit Equable Institute. That translates to almost $500 billion...
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SENATE SHOVELS $280 BILLION INTO CHIP MANUFACTURE GANG
Mussolini named it, American has long been doing it: Fascism, is the merger of state and corporate powers. The House of Representatives sent a bill to President Joe Biden’s desk last week that will earmark billions in financial assistance for U.S. companies to create domestic semiconductor facilities to counter China’s growth in the industry. The...
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CONGRESS ADDS ANOTHER HALF TRILLION IN DEBT WITH NEW BILL
After a year of negotiations and false starts, Senate Democrats won Joe Manchin’s agreement to a plan to spend $385 billion to speed the U.S. transition toward cleaner fuels and $100 billion to expand subsidies for Medicare drug coverage and for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare,” for three years. The proposed...