Personal income fell 2.7 percent in August compared to July, due entirely to the end of federal unemployment benefits of up to $600 a week, the U.S. commerce department reported. Household income remained, however, at 2 percent above February’s mark because of one-time federal stimulus payments, ongoing unemployment benefits, and stock market profits, most of...
Category: TRENDS ON THE U.S. ECONOMIC FRONT
Post
AMERICANS: GET OLD, RETIRE POOR
Half of Americans now aged 55 or older are likely to have less than $20,000 a year to live on at age 65, according to an analysis by economist Teresa Ghilarducci at New York’s New School. “That means chronic deprivation for the rest of your life,” she said. The reason: the economic shutdown. Older workers...
Post
DEBT LOAD HOBBLES U.S. RECOVERY
When the economy shut down in March, the U.S. economy was toting $64 trillion in government, business, and consumer debt – more than three times the national GDP. Economies with high debt tend to recover more slowly from a setback than economies with less borrowing. In the U.S., up to 70 percent of the economy...
Post
U.S. MARKETS FRONT
On the equity market front, it’s more of the same. Stock markets keep rising as the global and domestic economies keep sinking. The reason for yesterday’s market boost, according to the Wall Street Journal, was because “investors [a.k.a. gamblers] cheered signs that political uncertainty may ebb following reports of President Trump’s improving health.” As we...
Post
INVESTORS DUMP JUNK BONDS
Investors pulled $4.86 billion out of junk bond funds during the week ending 23 September, the market’s worst weekly sell-off since March. BlackRock’s iShares high-yield bond fund had $2 billion taken out of it on Monday and Tuesday alone. The average yield on U.S. junk bonds rose to 5.83 percent on 23 September to its...
Post
GOING DOWN, GOING BUST, GOING OUT
How bad is it in the current world of businesses, careers, jobs, and professions… and how low will it go? Here is our latest overview of those suffering from the draconian economic lockdowns imposed upon society. DISNEY FIRING SQUAD: Walt Disney’s Great-Niece, Abigail Disney, who is not a fan of Disney management, warned back in late...
Post
GLOBAL ECONOMIC TRENDS
CANADIAN BUSINESSES FACE “L-SHAPED RECOVERY.” Canada’s small businesses will not see sales return to pre-pandemic levels until February 2022, and the hotel industry will not return to normal until 2029, if the nation’s economic recovery continues at its current “glacial” pace, warned the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) on 22 September. A new survey...
Post
CDC BLACKLISTS BLACK FRIDAY
The CDC has warned consumers to avoid the usual crush of holiday shopping that begins on “Black Friday,” the traditional day on which shoppers push past each other and crowd together in store aisles to grab the season’s gifts of choice. Among the CDC’s holiday guidelines for sharing the upcoming holidays with the COVID virus:...
Post
LANDLORDS SUE TO END EVICTION BANS
Landlords around the U.S. have filed at least 26 lawsuits challenging the federal ban on evictions, claiming the moratorium violates their property rights and places them under undue hardship. Seven landlords managing more than 5,000 apartments in Memphis, TN, are suing the federal government for denying them due process and pre-empting state laws. The National...
Post
HALF OF SMALL U.S. TRAVEL-RELATED BUSINESSES ON THE BRINK
About 55 percent of all small U.S. travel-related businesses will either need more than six months to recover from the economic shutdown or will never be able to recover at all, the U.S. Travel Association has warned. Lodging and food service businesses employed one in ten Americans before the pandemic, with 95 percent of those...