Category Archives: Economy

The Wages of Fear in a Recession—Part II

Financial FAQs FRED Is the U.S. economy already in recession? How can it be with more than 80 percent of the adult workforce employed? But that isn’t how recessions actually begin, as portrayed in the above St. Louis Fed unemployment … Continue reading →

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The Wages of Fear In Distrustful Times

Financial FAQs Goldman Sachs The Wages of Fear is a famous 1950s French film starring Yves Montand about four men that agree to carry a very dangerous cargo of nitroglycerine, the main dynamite ingredient, through a remote South American jungle … Continue reading →

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Why Are Retail Sales Struggling?

Financial FAQs Calculated Risk Retail sales have slowed markedly since the fall of 2019, with monthly overall sales up just 0.3 percent, and rising 3.9 percent annually without volatile gasoline prices. This means the U.S. is basically stuck in a … Continue reading →

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Who Is Fully Employed in January?

Financial FAQs MarketWatch It looks like everyone is employed in the service sector, but manufacturing is sputtering. There were 44,000 new construction jobs and a whopping 72,000 in Education and health services. But manufacturing lost another 12,000 jobs in January; … Continue reading →

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Disaster Preparation—Why Irrational Exuberance?

Popular Economics Weekly WTI Crude Oil Stock and bond prices are gyrating when the world economy doesn’t seem to know what to make of China’s coronavirus that has now spread to some 23 countries, according to latest reports. And that … Continue reading →

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How We Can Build Peace in the 21st Century

Answering the Kennedys’ Call It was a humbling experience to join more than 1,000 Rotarians and other peacemakers at the 2020 Rotary World Peace Conference this January. It gave me hope to see both young and old attending to learn … Continue reading →

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Retail Sales Strengthen Q4 Growth

The Mortgage Corner FRED It looks like consumers came through during the holidays, as retail sales jumped 0.3 percent in December and are up 3.5 percent from a year ago, per the above FRED (St. Louis Fed) graph. It might … Continue reading →

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What Is American Socialism?

Financial FAQs What is American Socialism that candidate Bernie Sanders has talked about ever since he has been running for President? In fact, our one and only example of something that represents any definition of Socialism and concerted government planning … Continue reading →

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December Job Formation Slipping

Popular Economics Weekly MarketWatch This MarketWatch graph gives an instant picture of December payroll formation. The consumer-driven service sector is booming with more than 154,000 nonfarm payroll jobs created in December, but 19,000 jobs were lost in the Mining and … Continue reading →

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Why Irrational Exuberance In A Year of Living Dangerously?

Financial FAQs Wrightson.com We are now living in a much more dangerous world, because there is the possibility of war in the Middle East that is accompanying the various trade wars waged by the “Make America Great” White House. In … Continue reading →

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