Category: TRENDS ON THE U.S. ECONOMIC FRONT

Remember the lines being played out by politicians and the business media in the early months of the government lockdowns that the economy will come back, and it will be “V- shaped” recovery? As we had forecast in March, the longer and harder the COVID War rages, the deeper the economy will fall and millions...

The official U.S. tally of unemployed workers may be showing millions too many people jobless, due to problems with the Pandemic Unemployed Assistance (PUA) program, which gives aid to gig workers, the self-employed, and others not covered by conventional unemployment insurance. The problem seems to vary by state. Texas’s count of people receiving the program’s...

In August, consumer spending rose 0.6 percent, the fourth consecutive month of increases, but August’s pace of spending was slower than the 0.9-percent increase in July. Still, retail sales were 2.6 percent above those in August 2019. Spending on electronics was up 0.8 percent, clothing sales gained 2.9 percent, and furniture 2.1 percent. Spending at...

The U.S. Federal Reserve will keep interest rates near zero until labor markets tighten and inflation reaches 2 percent and “is on track to moderately exceed 2 percent for some time,” the central bank said in a statement on 16 September. The Fed officials said they expect the benchmark interest rate to stay near zero...

Yesterday, the Dow closed down 510 points, gold prices fell $38 closing at its lowest level since late July, and oil tanked 2.6 percent. The S&P fell 1.2 percent, and the tech-heavy NASDAQ fell 14.48 points. The fear there won’t be another money pumping stimulus from Washington before the election and fears of a second...

Despite surveys indicating the recession in America is over, new claims for unemployment benefits remained at 884,000 for the week ending 4 September, the same number as the previous week. The number was worse than analysts’ estimates of 850,000. New claims peaked at seven million in March, then began to ease. The pace of re-employment...

AMTRAK PLEADS FOR $5.9 BILLION. The nation’s premiere rail carrier needs the funds now to prevent service cuts, layoffs, and to “stave off bankruptcy,” CEO William Flynn told Congress on 9 September. Amtrak has announced it will lay off 10 percent of its 20,000 workers by the end of this month and is cutting its...

The number of so-called “criticized” commercial real estate loans, those judged to be heading for trouble, rose 144 percent in the second quarter to $26 billion in value among the ten U.S. banks holding the largest volume of those loans, according to a Financial Times report. A criticized loan is a debt rated CCC or...

By August, no more than an estimated 8 to 10 percent of New York’s office workers had returned to their urban towers, 20 percent fewer than analysts had projected in May. Just 25 percent of companies leasing Big Apple office space planned to bring their workers back to town this year, according to a recent...

In late August, 335 storefronts stood empty along New York City’s Great White Way, compared to 188 at the same time in 2017, according to Manhattan borough president Gale Brewer. About a third of the vacancies were along the avenue’s 44-block stretch that includes the Garment District. Foot traffic through the area fell 93 percent...