Category: TRENDS ON THE U.S. ECONOMIC FRONT

British engineering conglomerate Smiths Group will sell its Smiths Medical division to California-based ICU Medical for $2.7 billion after rejecting a $2.3-billion bid from private equity firm TA Associates, the Financial Times reported. The deal will leave Smiths with about an extra $50 million in cash, with the company’s stockholders owning 10 percent of the...

Blackstone, Brookfield Asset Management, and other private equity firms are investing billions to create or buy upscale off-campus housing for college students now that the institutions are unlocking their classrooms, according to The Wall Street Journal. Deals involving student housing totaled $2.52 billion during the first six months of this year, compared to $1.68 billion...

From January through July, U.S. residential rental rates shot up 13 percent, more than double the rate of inflation and the greatest jump in five years, according to Yardi Matrix, which collects and analyzes real estate data. Rents have been pushed up, in no small measure, because investors ranging from private individuals to private equity...

Companies that rely on business travel—including airlines and hotels—have suffered in recent weeks due to the emergence of the COVID-19 Delta variant and the decision by many firms to step back from sending their employees on business trips. “I’d say it’s a pause, as compared to continued growth. That said, we understand why it’s paused,”...

Wells Fargo, the third largest U.S. bank by deposits, was handed a $250-million fine and a hard verbal spanking by the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency last week. The bank was cited for “unsafe or unsound practice” in making home loans, including inadequate controls, ineffective governance, and errors that harmed its customers,...

On 9 September, major U.S. airlines lowered profit expectations for the rest of this year, due to reductions in bookings because of COVID’s rampant Delta variant, The Wall Street Journal reported. Airlines had made optimistic earnings and profit forecasts in summer as reservations for summer and fall travel grew, as we reported in “U.S. Airline...

Sales in the U.S. restaurant and food service industry will reach $789 billion this year, a 20-percent gain on 2020’s figure, but still well short of 2019’s $864 billion, the National Restaurant Association (NRA) has predicted. Eateries are still short of workers, face rising food costs and menu prices, and now the COVID virus’s Delta...

ABC Carpet and Home, a purveyor of luxury home décor to New York City’s upper crust for more than a century, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, blaming its woes on the COVID-era lockdown and a “mass exodus” of its customer base from Manhattan. An investment vehicle called 888 Capital Partners has offered $15.3...

In 2020, officials of the U.S. Federal Reserve traded stocks and other securities while the central bank was shoring up financial markets with bond purchases, rock-bottom interest rates, and other aids. The reported trades were made by Robert Kaplan, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, and Eric Rosengren, president of the Boston Fed....

On 28 August, a record 44 ships were anchored off the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Bloomberg reported, waiting for a slot in a terminal to load goods bound for China or unload merchandise coming from there. Ships’ average wait time had grown to 7.6 days on that date, compared to 6.2 days...