On 8 February, the number of container ships waiting to enter ports at Los Angeles and Long Beach fell to 78 from the peak of 109 a month earlier, the Marine Exchange of Southern California reported. The backlog is the smallest since 11 November, according to The Wall Street Journal. It is unclear whether the...
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TURKEY’S BONDS DOWNGRADED. WORSE TO COME
On 12 February, ratings agency Fitch lowered Turkey’s sovereign bond ratings deeper into junk status, dropping them from BB- to B+, putting the G20 nation on the same credit footing as Benin and Rwanda. The lower rating will increase Turkey’s borrowing cost, an especially painful consequence because Turkey depends on foreign lending to keep its...
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RUSSIA RAISES RATES, AGAIN
The Bank of Russia announced on 11 February that it will raise its base interest rate from 8.5 percent to 9.5 in its ongoing attempt to lasso inflation, which edged up from 8.4 percent in December to 8.7 percent in January. The bank has raised its rate seven times in the past year, first moving...
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TOP 2022 TREND: EUROPE WILL INVEST €43 BILLION IN CHIP MANUFACTURING
The European Commission (EC) has announced €43 billion in funding to build new plants to make advanced computer chips that will power next-generation smartphones, appliances, and electric vehicles. The move aligns with our “Top 2022 Trend” of households, businesses, and nations moving toward economic self-sufficiency. The COVID War “painfully exposed the vulnerability” of Europe’s chip...
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TIGHTEN POLICY NOW, BUNDESBANK CHIEF SAYS
Europe’s central banks need to stop economic stimulus programs now, begin a “normalization” of monetary policies, and tighten the European Union’s (EU’s) fiscal rules to ensure they are being adhered to, Joachim Nagel, the new head Germany’s Bundesbank central bank, said in an interview last week with the Die Zeit newspaper. “The economy is recovering,”...
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EU CUTS 2022 GROWTH FORECAST AS INFLATION RAGES ON
Energy prices will be “a more protracted drag” on the European Union’s (EU’s) economy this year, moving the European Commission (EC) to trim its 2022 growth forecast from 4.3 percent to an even 4. The rate will slow further to 2.8 percent in 2023 and 2.7 percent in 2024, the EC predicted, as the EU’s...
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AS FED RAISES INTEREST, SAVERS WON’T BENEFIT AS BANKSTERS CASH IN
Although the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise interest rates this year, banks are unlikely to raise interest rates on savings accounts or CDs, The Wall Street Journal said. Banks just don’t need to offer higher returns to attract more money. During the COVID War, the U.S. savings rate reached near-record levels, padded by government stimulus...
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MIDDLE-INCOME BUYERS TOO POOR TO BUY HOMES
At the end of 2021, there were 411,000 fewer homes on the market that were affordable for households making $75,000 to $100,000 a year, compared to the end of 2019, according to a study released 7 February by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Households in that income category could afford 51 percent of the...
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HOME PRICE RISE CONTINUES. END IS NEAR?
The median sale price of an existing single-family home was $361,700 in 2021’s fourth quarter, a 14.6-percent gain from a year earlier, in 181 of the 183 metro areas watched by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), the association reported. However, the price was slightly less than the $363,000 median set in last year’s third...
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TOP 2022 TREND: THE CONSUMER SPENDING SHUFFLE
U.S. consumer spending on basic and essential goods and services such as clothing, food, housing, transportation, and utilities rose to a record proportion of household incomes, according to a December survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Spending on cars, furniture, home repairs, and other major expenses had dropped, consumers reported. Households surveyed...