Category Archives: Consumers

Rising Existing-Home Sales Not Enough

Posted on October 20, 2017 by Popular Economics Weekly

The Mortgage Corner WASHINGTON (October 20, 2017) — After three straight monthly declines, existing-home sales slightly reversed course in September, but ongoing supply shortages and recent hurricanes muted overall activity and caused sales to fall back on an annual basis, … Continue reading →

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Republicans Killing the Housing Market

Posted on October 16, 2017 by Popular Economics Weekly

The Mortgage Corner The Trump administration and Republicans’ anti-immigration policies will kill the housing market. Why? Trump wants to cut immigration quotas by 50 percent when there aren’t enough qualified workers to fill current job openings. And congress can’t agree … Continue reading →

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JOLTS Report – Too Many Job Openings!

Posted on October 12, 2017 by Popular Economics Weekly

Financial FAQs The Labor Department reported today that there were 6.1 million job openings in August in its JOLTS report, or Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, which was “little changed” from July, while hirings remained far behind at 5.430 … Continue reading →

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A Poor Employment Report?

Posted on October 10, 2017 by Popular Economics Weekly

Popular Economics Weekly What does it mean when 33,000 nonfarm payroll jobs were lost in September? Not much, when many of the losses came from the hurricanes that threw 1.5 million out of work, according to Marketwatch’s Jeff Bartash, and … Continue reading →

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Time to Build More Homes!

Posted on October 5, 2017 by Popular Economics Weekly

The Mortgage Corner The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) analysis of Census Construction Spending data shows that total private residential construction spending is soaring, as it rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of $520.9 billion in August, … Continue reading →

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Who Needs a Tax Cut?

Posted on September 29, 2017 by Popular Economics Weekly

Popular Economics Weekly It turns out very few of us need a tax cut. Marketwatch economist Rex Nutting calculates that those in the 60 percent middle-income brackets—from $32,000 to $140,000 per year—pay just an average 2.5 percent in income taxes. … Continue reading →

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Bad News for Workers = Bad Economic News!

Posted on September 21, 2017 by Popular Economics Weekly

Popular Economics Weekly Personal incomes have been increasing just 2.5 percent on average for several years. The problem is that’s not adequate GDP growth to pay down the $10 trillion in worldwide debt that’s been issued since 2008 to get … Continue reading →

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Factory Orders, Business Investment Rising at the Right Time

Posted on September 15, 2017 by Popular Economics Weekly

Popular Economics Weekly The US Dollar’s decline against foreign currencies, mostly due to geopolitical worries such as N. Korea’s nuclear intentions, is already helping the manufacturing sector with a sharp rise in factory orders. This will be aided by Hurricanes … Continue reading →

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Another Decent Employment Report

Posted on September 6, 2017 by Popular Economics Weekly

Financial FAQs The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 156,000 additional nonfarm payroll jobs were created in August, which was less than expected, but will be enough to keep markets happy. And the unemployment rate edged up to 4.4 percent … Continue reading →

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Are Corporate Taxes Too Low?

Posted on August 31, 2017 by Popular Economics Weekly

Financial FAQs As congress now pivots to the debate on tax reform—when and if they can agree on raising the debt ceiling—why is a lower corporate tax rate part of the proposal? The federal budget deficit can’t decline unless congress … Continue reading →

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