Category Archives: Consumers

Whither Go Interest Rates?

Posted on March 8, 2018 by Popular Economics Weekly

The Mortgage Corner Existing-home resales weakened in January as the NAR’s pending home sales index fell sharply and is pointing to trouble for final sales of existing homes where the year-on-year rate for January had already fallen back below the … Continue reading →

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How Bad Is Our Trade Deficit?

Posted on March 7, 2018 by Popular Economics Weekly

Financial FAQs President Trump just announced a 25 percent tariff (tax) on imported steel, and 10 percent tariff on aluminum. Will this improve our 2017 $566 billion trade deficit? Can we lower our trade deficit with higher tariffs on such … Continue reading →

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How Bad Is Our Trade Deficit?

Posted on March 7, 2018 by Popular Economics Weekly

Financial FAQs President Trump just announced a 25 percent tariff (tax) on imported steel, and 10 percent tariff on aluminum. Will this improve our 2017 $566 billion trade deficit? Can we lower our trade deficit with higher tariffs on such … Continue reading →

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The Dangerous Treasury Yield Curve

Posted on March 5, 2018 by Popular Economics Weekly

Popular Economics Weekly New Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has maintained that the Fed is on track to raise their short term interest rates at least 3 times this year. Why? It sees higher inflation down the road because of … Continue reading →

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Where Have All the Profits Gone?

Posted on March 2, 2018 by Popular Economics Weekly

Popular Economics Weekly I first wrote about the reasons for the huge stock selloff in early February when the DOW plunged more than 1,000 points in one day. It seems to be repeating itself this week, with the DOW losing … Continue reading →

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Lower Inventory = Fewer Home Sales

Posted on February 22, 2018 by Popular Economics Weekly

The Mortgage Corner WASHINGTON (February 21, 2018) — Existing-home sales slumped for the second consecutive month in January and experienced their largest decline on an annual basis in over three years, according to the National Association of Realtors. All major … Continue reading →

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New-Home Construction Soaring

Posted on February 17, 2018 by Popular Economics Weekly

Financial FAQs Construction of new homes in the U.S., known as housing starts, jumped almost 10 percent in January to an annual rate of 1.33 million. That’s the second highest level since the Great Recession and it easily exceeded the … Continue reading →

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Wages Rise in Unemployment Report!

Posted on February 2, 2018 by Popular Economics Weekly

Popular Economics Weekly The best news in January’s unemployment report was average hourly wages jumped 9 cents, to $26.74. It pushed the yearly increase to 2.9 percent from 2.6 percent, marking the highest level since the end of the Great … Continue reading →

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Q4 GDP Growth Misses 3 Percent

Posted on January 26, 2018 by Popular Economics Weekly

Popular Economics Weekly Consumers and businesses powered the economy to a 2.6 percent rate of gross domestic product growth in the final three months of 2017, according to the Commerce Department. But declining inventories and a wider trade deficit kept … Continue reading →

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Existing-Home Inventory Lowest in 18 years

Posted on January 24, 2018 by Popular Economics Weekly

The Mortgage Corner There aren’t enough home to sell. Sales of previously-owned homes tumbled in December as an ongoing inventory crunch became more worrisome with few homes to sell in parts of the country. Existing-home sales were down 3.6 percent … Continue reading →

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