U.S. sales of tobacco products edged up 0.4 percent last year, the first annual increase in two decades, according to a report by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Americans stuck at home with little to do and few opportunities to travel or socialize smoked more, CEO Billy Gifford of cigarette-maker Altria Group, formerly Philip Morris,...
Tag: nov 2 2021
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PENDING HOME SALES DIPPED IN SEPTEMBER
As mortgage interest rates edged up in September, the number of signed contracts for home purchases unexpectedly dipped 2.3 percent from August, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported, and fell 8 percent from the number a year earlier. Mortgage interest rates remained below 3 percent from July through early September, but rose to an...
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ORDERS FOR DURABLE GOODS SHRANK IN SEPTEMBER
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...
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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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CHOMSKY COOL WITH STARVING OUT THE UNVAXXED
Self-described anarcho-syndicalist liberatarian socialist Noam Chomsky has called for isolating unvaccinated peoples from society and leaving them to go hungry. In comments during an interview on the YouTube “Primo Radical” channel, Chomsky invoked a Communist-style starvation tactic to deal with vax resistors: “Such people have to be– they should have the decency to remove themselves...
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THE BUSHIES SPEAK: WHO CARES WHERE COVID CAME FROM?
So what if scientists may have unleashed a man-made virus that paralysed the world, ruined economies, locked down millions, spawned a forced gene therapy regime on humankind, and irretrievably darkened the future for a new generation? “Whether it originated in a lab or from a bat or from the United States or from wherever—who cares?”...
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COVID WAR WOUNDS SOUTH KOREA ECONOMY
Last week, the Bank of Korea announced that the country’s economy grew by a measly 0.3 percent from July to September, which was lower than expected with most of the blame being assigned to low domestic consumption due to COVID-19 restrictions. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal predicted that Seoul’s economy would grow by 0.6 percent...
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GET VACCINATED, SPREAD DELTA VARIANT AT HOME, STUDY SAYS
A study published Friday showed that individuals vaccinated for COVID-19 can spread the virus inside households just as easily as unvaccinated individuals. “Although vaccines remain highly effective at preventing severe disease and deaths from COVID-19, our findings suggest that vaccination is not sufficient to prevent transmission of the Delta variant in household settings with prolonged...
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BRITISH COLUMBIA: VAX SUPERSEDES HUMAN RIGHTS
Trends Journal reported earlier this year on British Columbia’s massive drive to vaccinate the Canadian province’s entire population; see “BRITISH COLUMBIA ROLLING OUT VAX FOR ‘EVERY CITIZEN’” (26 Jan 2021). That article told of a Trends Journal reader and “concerned citizen” of B.C. who foresaw that a vaccine card or “passport” would be required, “stripping...