Category: TRENDS ON THE U.S. ECONOMIC FRONT

After decades of wielding power over national economies, nations’ central banks have spent much of their power. Their power comes through their ability to adjust interest rates to nudge growth or restrain inflation. Now many of these national banks have lowered interest rates to or near zero, or in some cases negative numbers, to boost...

The world is drifting toward another Great Depression, says Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund. She points to IMF research that finds parallels between current economic conditions, including economic inequality and financial markets’ instability, and those of the 1920s that culminated in the stock market collapse and a 10-year global depression that...

Record Bond Issues Heighten Fears of Debt Collapse In 2019, corporations globally took advantage of low interest rates and issued $2.5 trillion in bonds during the year, nudging past 2017’s record number. According to the World Bank, while central banks are eager to keep rates low to stave off a recession, their cheap money policies...

According to an executive at Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, gold could soar above $2,000 an ounce in the not-too-distant future. Greg Jensen, the firm’s co-chief investment officer, cites a range of factors: geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, especially between the U.S. and Iran; the U.S.-China trade war; the prospect of inflation...

U.S. builders are expected to add 371,000 apartments to the nation’s housing stock this year, a 50-percent increase over last year and more units than in any of the last 30 years. Available units could double or more in high-demand markets such as Houston and Los Angeles. But as many as 80 percent of these...

With U.S. stocks hitting six new-record highs in 2020’s first 12 trading days, investors holding $1 million or more in stocks are more confident in the market than a month ago. In 2019’s fourth quarter, many investors feared a market drop or recession; now a survey by E-Trade Financial found that 76 percent of these...

Many banks expect the dollar to weaken against other currencies this year. A weaker dollar would make U.S. goods cheaper in other countries, boost commodity prices at home, and buoy the stock price of mining, oil, and other companies that produce commodities. The weakness would stem from the Fed’s continuing low interest rates, which make...

Last Tuesday, the Fed opened another $82 billion in short-term liquidity to the repo markets. This followed $60.7 billion in aid on Monday. According to the Fed’s calculations, it has offered $4.2 trillion in props to markets as of 9 January. On 15 January, $229.5 billion of the short-term loans were outstanding. The Fed also...

The new pact gives each side some, but not a lot, of what it wants. China has agreed to buy about $200 billion a year in U.S. goods, stiffen protections for intellectual property, and open its markets wider to American firms, especially in financial services. The deal leaves in place about $370 billion in tariffs...