Category Archives: Consumers

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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Can We Fix the Housing Shortage?

The Mortgage Corner Calculated Risk Existing-home sales of single-family, condos and apartments were down slightly from their recent highs for a number of reasons. This is while demand for housing is skyrocketing with home prices up 20 percent year-over-year, but … Continue reading

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What is Normal Inflation?

Popular Economics Weekly FREDcpi The financial markets were shocked, yes shocked, when the May Consumer Price Index for retail prices jumped 4.9 percent year-over-year. Just kidding. No one was really surprised because one year ago it wasn’t rising at all … Continue reading

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When the Return to Normal Activity?

Financial FAQs Calculated Risk When will most American workers return to work, and the U.S. economy return to normal activity? The Calculated Risk-FRED graph since 1992 tells us that retail sales have historically never varied substantially from a 5 percent … Continue reading

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There Are More Jobs Than Ever!

Financial FAQs Calculated Risk The number of job openings reached a series high of 9.3 million on the last business day of April, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last Tuesday. Hires were little changed at 6.1 million. Total separations … Continue reading

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Who Lost Their Jobs?

Popular Economics Weekly MarketWatch.com This would be a good jobs report at any other time. Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 559,000 in May, from a revised 278,000 jobs in May, and the unemployment rate declined by 0.3 percentage point … Continue reading

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Some Workers Reluctant to Return to Their Jobs

Financial FAQs CNBC.com “In the week ending May 15, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial (jobless) claims was 444,000, a decrease of 34,000 from the previous week’s revised level. This is the lowest level for initial claims since March … Continue reading

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Why So Much Inequality?

Answering Kennedy’s Call Epi.org There aren’t many economists that still debate the origins of our record income inequality, the worse in the developed world, and even in some of the developing world. A loss of $10/hour in the typical worker’s compensation … Continue reading

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Job Openings Soar

Financial FAQs Calculatedriskblog “The number of job openings reached a series high of 8.1 million (yellow line in graph) on the last business day of March, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Hires were little changed at 6.0 … Continue reading

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