At least 722 U.S. companies declared bankruptcy in May, a 48-percent increase from a year earlier. Federal aid, including the Economic Injury Disaster Loan and Paycheck Protection Programs, have helped some companies endure a little longer but do not offer a lasting rescue. “As this relief runs its course, mounting financial challenges may result in more households and companies seeking...
“PATH AHEAD EXTRAORDINARILY UNCERTAIN,” FED SAYS
The U.S. path to economic recovery is “extraordinarily uncertain,” the U.S. Federal Reserve told Congress in its semiannual report released on 15 June. “Some small businesses and highly leveraged firms might have to shut down permanently or declare bankruptcy, which could have longer-lasting repercussions on productive capacity,” the report said. “In addition, there is uncertainty about future labor demand and...
FED FORECASTS SLOW RECOVERY, LOW RATES, HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT
U.S. Federal Reserve officials predicted that unemployment will hover around 9 or 10 percent during the last three months of the year. The forecast came after the central bank’s policy meeting last week, at which the bank’s governors left key interest rates unchanged. “We are strongly committed to using our tools to do whatever we can and for as long...
END UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFIT, SAYS LABOR SECRETARY
While the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve pump trillions into corporate welfare programs and stock markets, U.S. Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia (who’s papa Anthony was Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Judge) wants to end the $600-a-week federal “COVID” unemployment benefit enacted by Congress that helps keep households solvent as millions of workers lost their jobs… after it ends...
BILLION-DOLLAR GAMBLERS GRAB BAILOUT BUCKS
Carson Group, the $12-billion investment management firm that once touted itself as the new “Amazon of financial services,” secured a forgivable Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan from the U.S. government. So did the $6.3-billion Cornerstone Advisors Asset Management and Creative Financial Designs, which handles $1.4 billion in assets. Dozens of investment management companies rolling in cash after a ten-year bull...
FED BAILOUT MANAGER BAILS ITSELF OUT FIRST
The U.S. Federal Reserve’s Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility (SMCCF) is one of the central bank’s 11 programs to help revive the U.S. economy. But, despite Fed chair Jerome Powell’s reassurances that the programs are intended to rescue small businesses, the SMCCF is one of the ten initiatives that bails out Wall Street, not Main Street, reports Wall Street on...
PONZI 2.0: FED BUYING CORPORATE BONDS
Extending its efforts to artificially inflate the American economic recovery, yesterday, the U.S. Federal Reserve announced it will buy individual corporate bonds on the secondary market. The Fed added this operation to its Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility, which is empowered to buy up to $750 billion in bonds. The program will buy bonds with maturities of five years or...
U.S. MILITARY PRESENCE ON THE RISE
Last week, two of the Navy’s battleships, the USS Ronald Reagan and USS Nimitz, were ordered to the Pacific to protect against another COVID-19 outbreak in the area. The order came at a time of increasing political and economic tension between the U.S. and China. On 9 June, Taiwan reported a number of Chinese military jets crossed its air space,...
ISRAEL CRITICIZED FOR ANNEXATION PROPOSAL
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, supported by the Trump administration, has promised to annex parts of the West Bank next month. In response, Palestinians say since this would breach the ongoing peace accords established in the 1990s, they would no longer be bound by its conditions. This includes coordination between Israel and the Palestinians on important issues ranging from tax collection...
LEBANON: PROTESTS CONTINUE
New waves of anti-government demonstrations broke out across the country again last week. The protests were a reaction to the continuing plunge of the Lebanese currency, which dropped to a new low. Most Lebanese citizens have lost virtually all means of supporting themselves and their families, and they have put the blame on the greed and incompetence of their political...