For the first time since spring, orders for durable goods—items that are intended to last more than three years, such as washing machines and lawn mowers—fell in September, The Wall Street Journal reported. Orders declined 0.4 percent from August, settling to $261.3 billion, after four months of rising orders beginning last May. August’s estimate of...
Category: TRENDS ON THE U.S. ECONOMIC FRONT
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U.S. ECONOMY GREW JUST 2 PERCENT IN THIRD QUARTER
The U.S. GDP expanded by a feeble 2 percent in this year’s third quarter, the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis reported on 28 October. The growth rate was the slowest for any quarter since 2019’s final three months, when the economy expanded by only 1.9 percent, a figure indicating the U.S. economy was slumping even...
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INVESTORS ENERGIZE JUNK BOND MARKET DESPITE GROWING RISKS
The U.S. high-yield debt market, also known as junk bonds, has grown to a record size, the Financial Times reported, as a record 149 companies this year, such as Coinbase and Medline, have locked into rock-bottom interest rates and investors seeking to boost yields tapped cheap money to take a flyer on higher-risk companies. We...
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MARKET OVERVIEW
U.S. STOCKS CLOSE BEST MONTH IN A YEAR The “October Surprise” of a stock market meltdown did not happen. Instead, after managing small gains last Friday to close its best month since November 2020, the Dow Jones Industrial Average began the new month with another record close and traded briefly above 36,000. The NASDAQ added...
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SPOTLIGHT: WORKERS ON DEMAND
WHERE HAVE ALL THE WORKERS GONE? If not for the COVID War, America’s labor force would have about 4.3 million more workers. U.S. employers have about 10 million job openings to fill. And jobless claims are at their lowest since the COVID War began. Those are the premises of an article published on 15 October...
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NEW YORK SECURITIES INDUSTRY LOST WORKERS IN 2020
Manhattan securities firms lost a net 3,600 workers last year, trimming payrolls by about 2 percent down to 179,000, according to data from the New York State Comptroller’s office. The city is set to lose another 4,900 of those employees this year, even though companies have bannered higher pay and better working conditions for new...
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FEDERAL RESERVE’S CHAIRMAN COMES UNDER SCRUTINY
Trends Journal has written about the scandals involving the ethical breaches at the Federal Reserve; see: “MORE PANDEMIC SHADY TRADES AT THE FEDERAL RESERVE?” (5 Oct 2021) “BANKSTER BANDITS GET RICHER PLAYING THE INSIDE TRACK” (14 Sep 2021) “FED ETHICS? FU!” (21 Sep 2021) “FED’S KAPLAN SIGNALED CONFLICTS IN DISCLOSURE FORM” (21 Sep 2021) Those...
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FED TIGHTENS TRADING RULES AFTER SCANDAL FORCES RESIGNATIONS
The U.S. Federal Reserve will no longer allow officials to trade stocks and bonds and will limit all trading activity under new rules announced last week. “These tough new rules raise the bar high in order to assure the public we serve that all of our senior officials maintain a single-minded focus on the public...
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MORE LOWER-INCOME AMERICANS WILL SKIP HOLIDAY SHOPPING THIS YEAR
This year, 11.5 percent of Americans plan not to buy gifts, according to a survey by accounting and business services firm Deloitte. The number is the highest in 10 years, and more than doubles the 4.9 percent who said they would not shop during 2020’s holiday season, Bloomberg reported. In 2019, 2.9 percent said they...
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2020 BUDGET DEFICIT SECOND-LARGEST IN HISTORY
In fiscal year 2021, which ended 30 September, the U.S. budget deficit climbed to $2.8 trillion, second only to fiscal 2020’s $3.1 trillion when the federal government and U.S. Federal Reserve flooded the economy with gifts, grants, and loans to keep it from crashing. The previous record deficit was 2009’s $1.4 billion during the Great...