Category: TRENDS ON THE U.S. ECONOMIC FRONT

Blackstone, one of the world’s largest investment managers, has bought 678 rent-controlled apartment buildings around the U.S. from insurance giant AIG for $5.1 billion, the Financial Times reported. The apartments are covered by the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit program, which gives developers tax breaks if they limit rents to no more than 20...

Across the U.S., the monthly rent for an apartment has increased an average of 7.5 percent this year, three times the typical annual bump, as demand is surging, Apartments.com reported. Analysts expect rents to continue climbing into next year, due largely to three factors, according to the Washington Post:  young adults are re-establishing their own...

During 2021’s first quarter, U.S. economic output returned to 99.5 percent of its level at the end of 2019. At the same time, American workers put in 4.5 percent fewer hours, according to The Wall Street Journal. In other words, the shutdown forced companies to automate or streamline processes, operations, and product lines, allowing businesses...

In a prelude to yesterday’s stock market plunge, stocks closed Friday below their Monday levels. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average each lost 1 percent for the week; the NASDAQ was off 1.9 percent. Equities sank on the news that inflation in June spiked 5.4 percent and surveys showing consumers losing a measure...

KKR, the U.S. private equity firm and takeover specialist with $367 billion in assets, has established a five-person team in the U.K. to stalk takeover targets amid a record-breaking number of deals involving private equity companies in British businesses. The five Brits will work “proactively” to build relationships with potential targets “as a main job,”...

Phoenix-based Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings (KS), the largest U.S. full-load trucking company, has bought regional carrier AAA Cooper Transportation (AAA) for $1.3 billion in cash and $10 million in Knight-Swift shares, the Wall Street Journal reported. Knight-Swift also has assumed $40 million of AAA Cooper debt. AAA Cooper, which travels the U.S. Southeast and Midwest, will...

JPMorgan Chase, the largest U.S. bank measured by assets, has bought 33 smaller companies this year as of 7 July, the Financial Times reported. The purchases include OpenInvest, a U.K. online asset manager that enables investors to customize portfolios based on social and environmental values, and a minority share of C6, a digital bank in...

Since the beginning of this year, private equity firms have taken part in 6,298 deals worth $513 billion, not including the record $34 billion that Blackstone Group, Carlyle Group, and Hellman & Friedman paid for a majority stake in medical products giant Medline Industries, the Financial Times reported. The number and value of the deals...

Despite a recent boom in airline traffic and leisure travel, 21 of the U.S.’s 25 premiere hotels are doing recession- or depression-level business, according to a new report by the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA). Most flagship hotels are located in pricey urban centers and have depended on business travelers, conventions, meetings, and special...

Major corporations continue downsizing their office space, many finding it worthwhile to take a one-time charge to sublease space or void leases altogether instead of holding onto useless square footage. “COVID changed everything and we became a remote-first company,” Michael Linford, CFO of loan company Affirm Holdings, told the Wall Street Journal. Ninety of the...