Remember, tracking trends is the understanding of where we are, and how we got here… to see where we are going. As Friedrich von Schiller said back in 1790, “In today already walks tomorrow.” And as we say at the Trends Journal, “Current events form future trends.” By using our Globalnomic® system of trend forecasting,...
“It’s the economy, stupid.” And now, thanks to the Ukraine War and the long series of sanctions and embargoes imposed on Russia by the US and NATO, market players are betting that for the first time since the market madness during the financial crisis in 2009, inflation will rise faster in Europe than the United...
More than two-thirds of U.S. counties with an urban center and a population of 250,000 or more lost population last year for the first time in 50 years, according to federal data analyzed by the bipartisan Economic Innovation Group. Eighty percent of exurban counties—those lying outside suburbs but not far enough out to be “rural”—gained...
U.S. orders for durable goods posted a 0.8-percent gain in March, reaching $275 billion. Durable goods are items intended to last at least three years, such as cars, washing machines, and lawn mowers. Demand for cars and electronics propelled the increase, notching the fifth month of gains out of the past six. New orders for...
During April’s third week, the number of applications for adjustable rate home mortgages doubled from the last quarter of 2021 as interest rates for 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages climbed to their highest since 2009. Fixed-rate loans averaged 5.37 percent late last month, compared to 5.20 percent the week before. The rate averaged 3.17 percent a year...
About 25.6 million Americans, more than 10 percent of all adults, borrowed money from family or friends between 30 March and 11 April to meet basic expenses, the U.S. census bureau’s Household Pulse survey reported. The number is 25 percent more than a year earlier. Millennials did the most borrowing. There are nearly 40 million...
Private and government employers boosted workers’ compensation by 4.5 percent in this year’s first quarter, compared to a year earlier, the U.S. labor department reported, exceeding the 4-percent bump in 2021’s final quarter and outpacing any quarterly gain since at least 2001. Benefits were worth 1.8 percent more at the end of the quarter, notching...
The U.S. economy contracted by 1.4 percent during this year’s first quarter, the commerce department reported on 28 April. The GDP’s implosion moved the country to the precipice of a recession, which is defined as two consecutive quarters of economic contraction. Several factors contributed to the economy’s reversal after rocketing ahead 6.9 percent during 2021’s...
In front of everyone’s eyes, it’s a rigged freak show and the freaks are in charge. On the Market Front: Yesterday, the Bankster megabank Citigroup flash-crashed Sweden’s benchmark index, the OMX, sinking it 8 percent before it closed down around 2 percent. The flash crash rippled across other European stock markets. Because the London Stock...
As many as one in three U.S. employees labored at home during the COVID War. Work got done, even though managers were unable to keep eyes on their staff. For many, that autonomy will continue. Of 91 companies surveyed by real estate consulting firm Cushman & Wakefield, 78 have adopted hybrid work models, enabling employees...