Monthly Archives: July 2021

Second Quarter Economic Growth Explodes

Financial FAQs BEA.gov The U.S. economy grew at a blistering pace in the spring and repaired most of the damage caused by the pandemic thanks to widespread coronavirus vaccinations and a nearly full reopening of the economy. The Q2 GDP … Continue reading

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Why Are Consumers So Confident?

Popular Economics Weekly Conference Board Rather than retreating mildly this month as expected, the Conference Board’s consumer confidence index edged up slightly from an upward-revised June level to stand at 129.1,” said Reuters.  That was a new pandemic-era high, although … Continue reading

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Can We Fix the Housing Shortage–Part II?

The Mortgage Corner Calculated Risk WASHINGTON (July 22, 2021) – Existing-home sales increased in June, snapping four consecutive months of declines, according to the National Association of Realtors®. But it’s not enough to bridge the supply-demand gap, especially for those … Continue reading

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How Do We Ease our Workload?

Financial FAQs occupydemocrats.com Why do Americans worker harder with longer hours than in other developed countries? And why is America’s income inequality the worst in the developed world? Both questions can be quickly encapsulated by NYTimes’ columnists Bret Stephens and … Continue reading

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Retail Sales Splurge Won’t Last

Calculated Risk “Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for June 2021, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, according to the US Census Bureau, but not for price changes, were $621.3 billion, an increase of … Continue reading

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Why Keep Interest Rates This Low?

Financial FAQs FREDPersavings Inflation isn’t yet a problem, but are very low interest rates becoming a problem? Interest rates have been at record lows for years, thanks to the Federal Reserve that has been buying up enough bonds and mortgage … Continue reading

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Too Many Jobs to Fill?

Popular Economics Weekly Calculated Risk There are too many job vacancies at the moment, per the Labor Department’s JOLTS report; though it actually signals that  businesses seem to want workers for the same old jobs, but there’s now a mismatch. … Continue reading

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A Good Jobs Report

Popular Economics Weekly Market Watch We should be wishing everyone a Happy July Fourth, with the Bureau of Labor Department’s June unemployment report. Workers’ wages in the service sector are rising, with 850,000 new nonfarm payroll jobs added to the … Continue reading

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Consumer Confidence, Home Prices Soar For How Long?

Financial FAQs Conference Board Consumer confidence is at record highs, as growing numbers of consumers believe the roaring 2020’s recovery is here to stay. And it’s also sending home price increases to record highs. But this isn’t another housing bubble. … Continue reading

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