Category: TRENDS ON THE U.S. ECONOMIC FRONT

INFLATION, RATE FEARS, UKRAINE JITTERS SINK STOCK PRICES Inflation and Ukraine War.  Lies, damn lies and statistics.  On the inflation lies front, for nearly a year, the Fed Head Bankster, Jerome Powell, along with the former Fed Head and now U.S. Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, kept yelling that inflation was “temporary” and later, as inflation...

New orders for U.S. factory-made goods fell 0.4 percent in January, the largest month-to-month decline since April 2020 at the start of the COVID War, the U.S. commerce department reported. The consensus among economists was for a 0.2-percent slip, only half the recorded slide. Meanwhile, the cost of U.S.-made goods climbed 0.5 percent in December,...

During the COVID War, consumers bunkered at home and focused their spending on buying “stuff” while restaurants, gyms, and concert halls were closed and travel was restricted. Now, consumers apparently have enough cars, couches, food processors, and home exercise equipment; spending on services is rising, bringing outlays on goods and services back into balance. Goods...

The U.S. economy gained 467,000 new jobs in January, the U.S. Labor Department reported. The gain defied predictions that the economy would add no more than 150,000 jobs or even lose as many as 200,000. The growth likely would have been stronger if the Omicron surge had not prevented two million people from actively seeking...

On 1 February, the U.S. national debt soared past $30 trillion for the first time, as inflation raged at 7 percent last month and the U.S. Federal Reserve prepared to raise interest rates. The economy reached the milestone earlier than the expected date of late 2025, due to the federal government’s $5 trillion of extra...

STOCKS RECOVER FROM LAST WEEK’S META-FLOP After a sharp slide last Thursday, U.S. stock indexes rallied Friday, hauled up by a 14-percent rise in Amazon’s share price and energized by a startling 467,000 gain in jobs in January, defying widespread predictions of job losses. All three major indexes posted gains for the second consecutive week,...

General Motors has announced investments of almost $7 billion to build an electric-vehicle battery plant in Michigan and retool a factory near Detroit to make electric Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks. The two plants will employ about 4,000 people, GM estimated. The state of Michigan gave GM $824 million in tax breaks and...

In 2021, investors bought a record $809 billion worth of commercial real estate, according to Real Capital Analytics, far surpassing 2019’s previous $600-billion record and doubling 2020’s total. Among the best sellers: apartment buildings, raking in $335.3 billion, 128 percent more than in 2020, as landlords kept raising rates in the face of relentless demand;...

Rental rates across the U.S. for places to live rose an average of 12 percent in January to set a new record, according to Zumper, an online rental agency. Last month, U.S. renters paid an average of $1,374 for a one-bedroom apartment, compared to $1,217 a year earlier, Zumper said. In 2020 and 2021, rents...

The number of pending home sales slid 3.8 percent in December compared to November and fell 6.9 percent from December 2020, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The number dropped most in the west and northeast, both of which were off by at least 10 percent, although all regions of the country saw...