Flush with government stimulus cash and payments for caring for COVID patients, major hospital chains are snapping up smaller rivals, independent hospitals, and physicians’ practices left weak by the coronavirus onslaught. The $178-billion federal Provider Relief Fund channeled government aid to hospitals during the crisis. However, the bulk of the aid went to the largest...
Tag: may 25 2021
Post
HOME PRICES WILL RISE THROUGH 2023, STUDY SAYS
Home prices will continue to rise through 2023, although more slowly than 2020’s 11.4-percent peak pace, according to an Urban Land Institute (ULI) survey this month of 42 economists at 39 real estate organizations. Prices will inflate by 8.1 percent this year, 5 percent in 2022, and 4 percent in 2023, bringing the rate slightly...
Post
COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE: BOOM OR BUST?
Half of U.S. hotel rooms are empty most nights, malls struggle to survive, and office buildings are still largely unused. Commercial real estate values, which slumped during the economic shutdown, seem, however, to have stabilized, and, in some cases, have begun to rise again. Market prices for the properties fell only 11 percent last year,...
Post
HOME SALES FALL AS INVENTORY DRIES UP, PRICES CLIMB
Sales of existing homes slipped 2.7 percent in April compared to March, the third consecutive month of sliding sales, the National Association of Realtors (NRA) reported. A continuing lack of available homes has pushed up prices. That increase, combined with rising mortgage interest rates, has left fewer potential buyers able to qualify for loans. April’s...
Post
JOBLESS CLAIMS REACH POST-CRISIS LOW AS STATES CUT BENEFITS
New claims for unemployment insurance totaled 444,000 in the most recent week, the U.S. Labor Department reported, the lowest number in 14 months. The number of people collecting jobless benefits from all state and federal programs fell to 16 million as of 1 May from 16.9 million the previous week, also the fewest since the...
Post
GAMBLERS DUMP SPACs
The Defiance Next Gen SPAC-Derived Exchange Traded Fund, which lists special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) and the businesses that have gone public through them, has lost 30 percent of its value since mid-February and recently touched a six-month low, the Wall Street Journal reported. A SPAC is a publicly traded company that has no assets and...
Post
BLOCKCHAIN BATTLES
FED AND CHINA MOVES POUND BITCOIN AND ETHER. Investors continued to run away from cryptos in droves following a crackdown against crypto payments in China and emerging regulatory moves by the Biden administration in the U.S. Some of the news might not have been quite what it seemed, but it affected buying and selling nonetheless....
Post
UNDER THE RADAR RADICAL: LAURENE POWELL JOBS
While many big tech political funders are highly visible, others manage to push their agendas while retaining much lower profiles. Laurene Powell Jobs is one example. The widow of Steve Jobs has managed to stay off the tip of the tongue, while funding endeavors that have huge political influence and objectives. Breitbart Editor-In-Chief Alex Marlow...
Post
SEARCH & BUY: GOOGLE & AMAZON BATTLE FOR DOMINANCE
Google has announced a partnership with Shopify to build out an enhanced platform that may look and feel quite a bit like shopping on Amazon. It signals an intent to challenge Amazon’s online retail dominance. Google won’t hold inventory. But the company will leverage its huge taps into data and analytics to power a platform...
Post
HOUSE VOTES FOR PERMANENT MILITARY OCCUPATION IN DC
Dozens of deaths and billions in property damage during BLM and Antifa riots in 2020 were celebrated by Washington Democrats as “mostly peaceful protests.” But when a comparative light whiff of the protest whirlwind came to their door on 6 January 2021, it was a different narrative: insurrection. Democrats who downplayed violence and destruction affecting...