While wages are not keeping up with inflation, on the home front it’s much worse. Typical residential rents in the U.S. rose 0.6 percent in February, the largest single-month jump since 1987, the U.S. Labor Department reported. The surge accounted for 40 percent of the month’s 0.4-percentage-point monthly gain in the core Consumer Price Index,...
Tag: march 15 2022
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“BIG QUIT” CONTINUES AS EMPLOYERS STRUGGLE TO FILL JOBS
About 4.3 million Americans quit their jobs in January, the eighth consecutive month in which resignations topped four million, the U.S. labor department reported. The number dipped slightly from December’s 4.4 million and November’s record 4.5 million, but remains near a record level. Monthly quits before the COVID era averaged about 3.5 million, Business Insider...
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U.S. TRADE DEFICIT SETS ANOTHER RECORD
Go back to the Trump years, when the word on The Street, nearly every time stock prices moved lower, they would blame it on the “Trade War,” which we kept noting had zero to do with the market moves because it was all talk and no action. Bingo! The U.S. trade deficit expanded by 9.4...
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HEDGE FUNDS EXPANDING REACH INTO DIGITAL CURRENCIES
Brevan Howard Asset Management and Tudor Investment Corp. are broadening their work in cryptocurrencies. Brevan Howard’s crypto fund, launched in January, soon will open itself to outside investors, The Wall Street Journal reported. In addition to betting on price directions, the fund will arbitrage different cryptos against each other and invest in blockchain technology, the...
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TOP TREND 2022-UNIONIZATION: LACK OF COMPETITION CUTS WORKERS’ LEVERAGE
The labor market is tight as a drum, with workers walking away from one job and right into another that pays better, the story goes. The reality is not so simple, says a new report from the U.S. Treasury department. Too often, employers face little competition for workers, allowing companies to dictate pay rates and...
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DRAGFLATION: TOP TREND FOR 2020. NOT STAGFLATION
Goldman Sachs analysts see the U.S. economy growing by 1.75 percent from 2021’s fourth quarter through this year’s third quarter, down from 2 percent they had foreseen earlier. The chances of a recession this year have grown as high as 35 percent, which is “currently implied by models,” they added. The yield curve for U.S....
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NEW JOBLESS CLAIMS TICK UP
New claims for unemployment benefits edged up 11,000 in the most recent week to 227,000, the U.S. labor department reported. The gain increased the benchmark four-week average by 500 to 231,250. Continuing claims rose fractionally from 1.47 million in the previous week to 1.49 million. Jobless claims have been trending down since a slight bump...
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INFLATION STILL OUTPACING PAY RAISES
Only 18 percent of U.S. workers feel their pay is keeping pace with inflation, according to a Capital One Insights Center poll released earlier this month. The number drops to 9 percent among households earning less than $25,000. However, 31 percent of high-income earners reported incomes that matched inflation. However, “higher earners are struggling to...
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FROM “TEMPORARY” TO “TRANSITORY” INFLATION KEEPS SPIKING
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) swelled by 7.9 percent from February 2021 through February 2022, the U.S. labor department reported, the fastest clip since January 1982’s 8.4 percent when the country was gripped by dragflation, a combination of rising prices and a shrinking economy. Prices rose 0.8 percent from January through February. The hike edged...
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AFTER DESTROYING VENEZUELA’S ECONOMY, NOW U.S. WANTS THEIR OIL
It’s all about the oil, stupid. After years of trying to unseat Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in favor of Juan Guaidó—a nothing of a U.S. puppet pumped up by Donald Trump during his presidency—the U.S. wants to make friends with Maduro after it banned Russian oil imports and sent oil prices soaring. (See “As forecast:...