Category: TRENDS ON THE U.S. ECONOMIC FRONT

The International Monetary Fund says the economic damage done by shutting down the world’s economy and placing half the world’s population under some form of lockdown will be the worst since the Great Depression 90 years ago. The IMF calculates that $100 billion has been withdrawn from global investment to date during the current crisis,...

After crashing their economies in a virus-inspired panic, nations are beginning to feel their way back to something resembling normal. These plans extend beyond purely financial measures, such as central bank bailout loans and suspension of mortgage payments. Austria has become the first European country to say it will permit small retailers to gradually re-open...

Developing Nations Call for IMF Rescue Fourteen Latin American and Caribbean nations face their worst economic setback in 50 years and have requested urgent help from the International Monetary Fund. The region’s economies already were slumping because of the global economy’s slowdown, which reduced sales of commodities on which many of those economies depend. The global...

Non-Oil Business Sectors in Trouble The United Arab Emirates’ central bank doubled its economic stimulus program to $70 billion to counter deteriorating business conditions in this key Middle East commercial and financial hub. Oil prices have collapsed and recent surveys show non-oil sectors of the region’s two largest economies shrinking at dramatic rates. Saudi Arabia’s...

EU Nations Agree on Bailout Deal On 9 April, the finance ministers of the European Union’s 27 member countries agreed to a €500-billion rescue plan for the continent. The plan rejected calls from Italy and Spain for collective borrowing, leaving each country to do that on its own. The Netherlands gave up its insistence that...

Leading economists still seem unwilling to confront the blunt reality of the current economic crisis. James Bullard, president of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, told CBS’s “Face the Nation” audience on 12 April that he didn’t believe the U.S. jobs market was in “free fall,” despite 10 percent of the American workforce suddenly becoming...

As federal relief funds work their way through bureaucratic pipelines to banks and other agencies that will distribute them, the damage the funds are targeting continue to mount. More than 16 million Americans are out of work, with more destined to be laid off before federal money can reach the companies that were to use...

Yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 329 points to close at 23,390. The NASDAQ rose 39 points to 8,192. The Dow’s loss can be attributed to investors taking profits from last week’s gains and waiting out first-quarter earnings reports due from big banks, which are expected to be negative. Last week, the S&P index...

With the economy at a standstill, U.S. office space under long-term leases is no longer a safe investment. Long-term leases no longer offer a guaranteed return if the tenant can’t pay rent or goes out of business. As a result, investors are bailing out of real estate investment trusts as tenants successfully pressure their landlords...

The U.S. Federal Reserve has released details of its “Main Street” lending plan to buy commercial loans from American businesses. For corporations with between 500 and 10,000 employees, the Fed will soon begin buying up to $600 billion in corporate loans from banks. Corporations are eligible if they held an “investment grade” rating or better...