The U.S. economy expanded by 7 percent in 2021’s fourth quarter and 5.6 percent for all of 2021, the Commerce Department reported. The results edged past the department’s estimates of 6.9 and 5.5 percent, respectively. And for the week ending 5 February, a total of 1,476,000 eligible Americans were receiving jobless payments, down by about...
Category: TRENDS ON THE U.S. ECONOMIC FRONT
Post
MARKET OVERVIEW
The Ukraine War has changed the course of history. Tracking trends is the understanding of where we are, how we got here, and where we are going. The “how we got here” is clear and simple: Near zero interest rates = cheap money artificially propped up equities and economies as we have greatly detailed in...
Post
BIDEN ADDRESSES PUBLIC’S INFLATION CONCERN IN NEW COMMENTS
As public confidence in president Joe Biden’s ability to manage the economy continues to slide, he has adjusted his public comments to show empathy for households coping with ever-rising prices, The Wall Street Journal noted. Last July, he said that higher prices “were expected and expected to be temporary”; in September, he said “there is...
Post
FRACKERS KEEP PRODUCTION LOW AS OIL AND GAS PRICES RISE
Major U.S. producers of fracked oil and natural gas are investing only enough to keep production at current levels, despite global benchmark Brent crude oil prices briefly breaking through $100 a barrel on 16 February, its highest in almost eight years. Three leading U.S. fracking producers—Continental Resources, Devon Energy, and Pioneer Natural Resources—all reported 2021’s...
Post
CLIMATE CHANGE? FORGET ABOUT IT: U.S. COAL PRICES HIT CENTURY HIGH
U.S. coal prices have shot from just above $80 a ton when 2021 began to more than $230 now as the world’s post-COVID energy demand has strained producers of all kinds of fuel to keep up. Last year saw the first increase in America’s coal production since 2014. Peabody Energy, the world’s largest private coal...
Post
MILLION-DOLLAR HOMES NOW THE “AVERAGE”
The average home value has reached $1 million in 481 U.S. cities, double the number of locales in 2017, according to data from the online real estate brokerage Zillow. In 2021, 146 cities reached that mark. “The geography of wealth in the U.S. has begun to shift, as 2021 was the first year for both...
Post
APARTMENT INVESTORS HEAD SOUTH
Apartment buildings are the best-performing real estate investment this year, as we reported in “Commercial Real Estate Investments Hit Record Level. Read Between the Lines” (1 Feb 2021), and investors are panning for gold in the hottest U.S. real estate patch—the Sunbelt. Landlords are following migration patterns, as aging Baby Boomers go south and businesses...
Post
HOUSING MARKET: SALES UP, FEWER HOMES FOR SALE
Sales of existing U.S. homes rose 6.7 percent in January from December, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported, as buyers rushed to lock in low mortgage interest rates before the U.S. Federal Reserve boosts its key lending rate next month. Homes are still selling within days of being listed, with more homes being bought...
Post
SLAVELANDIA: 61 PERCENT OF AMERICANS LIVING PAYCHECK TO PAYCHECK
At the end of December, 61 percent of Americans were living paycheck to paycheck, a LendingClub survey found, slightly less than the high of 65 percent reported in 2020. We reported the financial straits of so many U.S. households in “Paycheck to Paycheck: The American Way” (29 Jun 2021). Although workers’ pay rose 4.7 percent...
Post
CONSUMER SPENDING REBOUNDS. WHAT’S NEXT?
After sliding 2.8 percent in December, consumer retail spending bounced up 3.8 percent in January to a record $649.8 billion, despite a 40-year record inflation rate, as the Omicron virus began to ebb, the U.S. census bureau reported. It was the sharpest monthly jump since March 2021, when households began receiving federal stimulus checks. The...