Category Archives: Economy

A Huge Employment Report

Popular Economics Weekly The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported today that total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 263,000 in April, and the unemployment rate declined to 3.6 percent. It was the lowest unemployment rate in 49 years—since December … Continue reading

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Are Consumers Happy, Will Continue to Spend?

Financial FAQs I mentioned last week the big question remains, with March’s initial estimate of Q1 GDP growth, will consumers continue to maintain their share of consumption and continue to boost economic growth? Today’s release of February and March Personal … Continue reading

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First Quarter GDP Growth Beats Estimates

Popular Economics Weekly Surprise, surprise, first quarter GDP growth beat the estimates of economists and pundits, but it wasn’t for the usual reasons. Spending at the state and local level jumped 3.9 percent after a 1.3 percent drop in the … Continue reading

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Laffernomics and Tomorrow’s GDP Estimate

Financial FAQs The decline of so-called Laffernomics, an economic theory first proposed by conservative economist Arthur Laffer in 1974, posited in so many words that lower tax rates of the wealthiest, in particular, would increase overall tax revenues as well … Continue reading

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Housing Supply Improving

The Mortgage Corner Our housing supply is finally improving. New-home sales ran at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 692,000, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. That was 4.5 percent above February’s total and beat the consensus forecast of a 645,000 … Continue reading

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Retail Sales Rebound Sign of Higher Growth?

Popular Economics Weekly Sales at U.S. retailers surged in March by the most in a year and a half, the latest in a string of reports suggesting economic growth is picking up after a soft spell of growth earlier in … Continue reading

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Part II—What’s Wrong With Capitalism?

Financial FAQs Pete Buttigieg, Mayor of South Bend, Indiana and Presidential candidate, said to NBC’s Chuck Todd, “of course I’m a capitalist and America is a capitalist society, but it’s got to be democratic capitalism,” per the NYTimes’ Michael Tomasky. … Continue reading

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What’s Wrong With Capitalism?

Financial FAQs Winston Churchill once said, “No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to … Continue reading

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March Job Creation Exceeds Population Growth

Popular Economics Weekly Stanford economist and Former Chief Economic Advisor Ed Lezear said this morning on CNBC that job creation still exceeds population growth, which is a sign the US economy continues to expand, but at a slower rate. “Total … Continue reading

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Ignore the Bad News-Goldilocks Is Back!

Financial FAQs Why has the Fed stopped raising their interest rates? Because this is the lowest inflation rate for ‘core’ consumption expenditures in three decades, as this FRED graph from 1980 onward portrays. fred stlouisfed.org. “We are almost 10 years … Continue reading

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