Category Archives: Consumers

January Employment Barely Rises

Posted on February 5, 2021 by Popular Economics Weekly

Popular Economics Weekly Calculated Risk The unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percentage point to 6.3 percent in January, while nonfarm payroll employment changed little (+49,000), the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The US labor market continued to reflect … Continue reading →

Posted in Consumers, COVID-19, Economy, Politics, Weekly Financial News | Leave a comment

Q4 Growth Weakens

Posted on February 2, 2021 by Popular Economics Weekly

Popular Economics Weekly Calculated Risk This Real Gross Domestic Product graph dating from 1959 shows that the US economy in 2020 had its worst contraction since the end of World War II. No surprise given we have the worst COVID-19 … Continue reading →

Posted in Consumers, COVID-19, Economy, Keynesian economics, Weekly Financial News | Leave a comment

Housing Construction Soars

Posted on January 21, 2021 by Popular Economics Weekly

The Mortgage Corner Calculated Risk As much housing is being built today as in 2006 at the height of the housing bubble. What is going on? People want to move away from cities, where fear of COVID-19 contagion is highest, … Continue reading →

Posted in Consumers, COVID-19, Economy, Housing, housing market, Weekly Financial News | Leave a comment

Job Losses Mount From COVID-19

Posted on January 11, 2021 by Popular Economics Weekly

Popular Economics Weekly MarketWatch Total nonfarm payroll employment declined by 140,000 in December, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.7 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. “The decline in payroll employment reflects the recent increase in … Continue reading →

Posted in Consumers, COVID-19, Economy, Keynesian economics, Politics, Weekly Financial News | Leave a comment

Deaths of Despair, Part II—The Wall of Ignorance

Posted on January 5, 2021 by Popular Economics Weekly

Answering the Kennedys’ Call NBER.org Something can be done about the “Deaths of Despair” among the non-college educated white males that Anne Case and Angus Deaton have been writing about that I discussed in Deaths of Despair, Part I, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Consumers, Economy, Politics, Weekly Financial News | Leave a comment

Recovery Slows As Pandemic Surges

Posted on December 21, 2020 by Popular Economics Weekly

Financial FAQs ChicagoFed This Chicago Federal Reserve graph of national activity starkly portrays the present state of the US economy. The multi-colored bar represents deviations from the historical growth average, which is the zero line on graph. It is still … Continue reading →

Posted in Consumers, Economy, Politics, Weekly Financial News | Leave a comment

Retail Sales, Consumer Spending Falter

Posted on December 16, 2020 by Popular Economics Weekly

Financial FAQs FREDretailsales Sales at U.S. retailers fell in November for the second month in a row and posted the biggest decline since the onset of the pandemic, showing effects of the record rise in coronavirus cases. Retail sales fell … Continue reading →

Posted in Consumers, Economy, Weekly Financial News | Leave a comment

The Path to Economic Recovery—Part II

Posted on December 11, 2020 by Popular Economics Weekly

Financial FAQs Calculated Risk As I said in Part I of this series, there is a path to economic recovery from the worst recession since the Great Recession. Firstly, it means studying what economic policies have worked in past recoveries. … Continue reading →

Posted in Consumers, Economy, Keynesian economics, Politics, Weekly Financial News | Leave a comment

The Path to Economic Recovery

Posted on December 7, 2020 by Popular Economics Weekly

Financial FAQs Calculated Risk There is a path to economic recovery from the worst recession since the Great Recession—and maybe the Great Depression. But it means escaping from the free market economic orthodoxy that has prevailed since 1980, and which … Continue reading →

Posted in Consumers, Economy, Keynesian economics, Politics, Weekly Financial News | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Most Home Sales Since Housing Bubble!

Posted on November 20, 2020 by Popular Economics Weekly

The Mortgage Corner Calculated Risk How can there be a record number of homeless and a booming housing market? It’s almost unbelievable that one sector of our economy is growing like in the good old days of the early 2000s … Continue reading →

Posted in Consumers, Housing, housing market, Weekly Financial News | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment