Sales of previously owned homes edged up 0.8 percent in October to an annual rate of 6.34 million units, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported, 5.8 percent below October 2020, which was the market’s cyclical high point last year. If full-year sales top six million, it would be the largest number of existing homes...
Tag: nov 23 2021
Post
CONSUMERS KEPT ON BUYING IN OCTOBER
Despite rampant inflation, U.S. shoppers spent 1.7 percent more in October than in September, according to the U.S. commerce department. Spending climbed 4 percent at online retailers, 3.9 percent among gas stations, 2.2 percent at department stores, 1.8 percent for auto dealers, 1.5 percent among book, hobby, music, and sporting goods stores, and 1.1 percent...
Post
U.S. JOB GROWTH. BETTER THAN EXPECTED
In June through September, the U.S. labor department under-reported the number of filled jobs in the economy by 626,000, an average of 156,500 per month and the largest under-estimate on record for any four-month stretch. After July posted 943,000 new jobs, August’s report found the economy had created only 235,000, which was seen as a...
Post
SEMICONDUCTOR STOCKS RIDING HIGH ON CHIP SHORTAGE
Share values of computer chip makers Advanced Micro Devices, Nvidia, and Qualcomm have shot up 34 percent, 48 percent, and 40 percent, respectively, since mid-October as the global chip shortage drives chip prices steadily higher. Chip makers have been among leaders in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, which has gained 3.9 percent over the...
Post
HILLARY CLINTON COMES OUT AGAINST CRYPTOS
Cryptocurrencies, artificial intelligence, and the disinformation industry are among the “asymmetric power centers” that could destabilize governments, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum on 19 November. “The rise of cryptocurrency…has the potential to undermine currencies, undermine the dollar as the [world’s] reserve currency, for destabilizing nations, starting...
Post
CRYPTO FIRMS BUYING NAMING RIGHTS TO SPORTS PALACES
The Los Angeles Staples Center sports arena is being rechristened the Crypto.com Center on Christmas Day, after the Singapore crypto brokerage of the same name agreed to pay $700 million over 20 years for the privilege, people familiar told the Wall Street Journal. “This is certainly one of the largest deals I’ve ever heard of,”...
Post
NON-CITIZEN VOTING COMING TO NYC
Hundreds of thousands of noncitizens may soon be able to vote in municipal elections in New York City, though Mayor Bill de Blasio and his successor, Eric Adams, contend they have opposing views. The bill would add a new chapter to the city charter that would enable green card holders and those with work permission...
Post
FBI: HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?
Earlier this month, a Trends Journal article noted how U.S. Attorney Merrick Garland was taken to task by Sen. Ted Cruz for directing the Federal Bureau of Investigation to use its National Security powers against parents who dared to question or challenge their local school boards, essentially branding such parents as “domestic terrorists”; see “FBI:...
Post
PORTUGAL BANS BOSSES FROM CALLING WORKERS DURING OFF-HOURS. WHAT’S NEXT?
Portugal’s Socialist government announced a new series of laws it says will help remote workers adapt to the new work-from-home environment, including a rule that bars bosses from contacting employees during off-hours. Ana Mendes Godinho, Lisbon’s labor minister, announced the new law. She said the COVID-19 outbreak has introduced widespread remote working and “accelerated the...
Post
NEW FDA HEAD STUCK IN REVOLVING DOOR
President Joe Biden’s nominee to head the Food and Drug Administration definitely brings experience and credentials to the post, although some might say he also brings baggage. As reported by The New York Times on 12 November, if approved it wouldn’t be the first time that Dr. Robert M. Califf served as commissioner of the...