Although the demand for new homes remains strong, many builders are limiting sales to catch up on building the houses they already have promised, The Wall Street Journal reported. Low interest rates, the desire to escape cities during the COVID War, and newfound freedom to work from home has pushed home sales to record rates...
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DINERS AVOIDING RESTAURANTS FOR FEAR OF COVID
Again, as the COVID War 2.0 began to heat up in May, we had forecast an economic slowdown. Today the U.S. Commerce Department reported that consumer spending in both retail and in restaurants declined in July. While still up and growing, restaurant and bar sales increased at lower rates than they did in June. After...
DEMAND FOR HOMES COOLS AMID RECORD PRICES
The median price of U.S. homes held steady at $385,000 from June through July, according to the online Realtor.com. That figure shows a 10.3-percent increase above July 2020’s median, a slower pace than the 12.7-percent yearly gain posted in June, the realty website noted. In this year’s second quarter, home prices rose at least 10...
COVID VARIANT SOURS SMALL BUSINESS OUTLOOK
We had forecast this would happen when governments began ramping up the COVID War 2.0 in May. Two new surveys have found small businesses’ confidence in the economic future has plummeted. The COVID virus’s surging Delta variant is forcing six in ten small businesses to alter their plans and outlook for the rest of this...
UNLIKE THE “OLD DAYS,” NO PLACE TO PUT YOUR SAVINGS
High inflation, low interest rates, and strong economic growth make this “a terrible time for savers,” a New York Times headline declared last week. Because a savings account is now earning interest at a rate below the pace of inflation, money saved is losing purchasing power day by day. The U.S. Federal Reserve has tied...
CONSUMER SENTIMENT TANKS
Consumers’ outlook for the economy turned its gloomiest since 2011, according to a monthly survey by the University of Michigan. Consumer sentiment fell from July’s 81.2 to 70.2 this month, below the 71.8 notched in April 2020 as the economic collapse was under way. Observers had expected a consensus reading of 81.3 for August. “Over...
INFLATION SLOWS FROM GALLOP TO A TROT
The U.S. month-to-month inflation rate fell from 0.9 percent in June to 0.5 percent in July, the U.S. labor department reported. The core inflation rate, which ignores the always-volatile prices of food and fuel, was 0.3 percent for the month, compared to 0.9 percent in June, the department said, which gives a more accurate snapshot...
T-NOTE YIELD SLIPS ON INVESTORS’ JITTERS
When investors are optimistic, they lose interest in the safety of bonds and sell them so they can buy stocks, which are riskier but offer higher returns. When a lot of people sell bonds, bond prices fall as supply is greater than demand. As a result, bond yields go up to attract investors. Conversely, when...
CHINA EYEING AFGHANISTAN’S TRILLIONS IN RARE EARTH MINERAL WEALTH
There’s a silver lining for the Afghan people, if they can fight for it as well as they throw off invading armies: precious metals and rare earth minerals potentially worth trillions. CNBC is reporting that China will likely be high on the list attempting to work deals for access to that wealth. Over the weekend,...
ETHIOPIA’S CIVIL WAR WORSENING
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed last week called on “all capable Ethiopians” of fighting age to sign up for the country’s defense forces to confront the advancing Tigrayan forces that have changed the course of the war after some decisive victories. Abiy, the 2019 Nobel Prize winner who launched the War in November 2020, said...