Category Archives: Politics

New-Home Sales, Consumer Confidence Booming

The Mortgage Corner Graph: Econoday In spite of rising mortgage rates, new-home sales are booming and consumer confidence is at multi-year highs. March new-home sales rose 4.0 percent annualized to 694,000 and is just off the expansion high of 711,000 … Continue reading

Posted in Consumers, Economy, Housing, housing market, Politics, Weekly Financial News | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Retail Sales, Consumers Resume Spending Ways For How Long?

Financial FAQs Graph: Econoday “Autos are the big story in March,” said Econoday, “jumping 2.0 percent and finally shaking off the long lull following the replacement surge of September’s hurricanes. Excluding autos, retail sales managed only a 0.2 percent gain … Continue reading

Posted in Consumers, Economy, Politics | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Retail Sales, Consumers Resume Spending Ways For How Long?

Financial FAQs Graph: Econoday “Autos are the big story in March,” said Econoday, “jumping 2.0 percent and finally shaking off the long lull following the replacement surge of September’s hurricanes. Excluding autos, retail sales managed only a 0.2 percent gain … Continue reading

Posted in Consumers, Economy, Politics | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Wintry Unemployment Report Chills Markets

Popular Economics Weekly Graph: Marketwatch The smallest number of nonfarm payroll jobs since last year were created in March—103,000 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But it’s still pushing wages higher—to 2.7 percent annually, and the working population participation … Continue reading

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

Manufacturing Leading 2018 US Growth For How Long?

Popular Economics Weekly Graph: Econoday US manufacturing looks to lead US economic activity this year. Why? Durable goods orders are growing incredibly fast, which are any products that last more than 3 years. This means aircraft and military goods, as … Continue reading

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

Where is the Inflation, Higher Growth?

Financial FAQs The drumbeat for a higher inflation target is picking up. The Chicago Fed’s Charles Evans recently advocated a less hawkish Fed stanch on maintaining the 2 percent inflation target with few signs of inflation even on the horizon. … Continue reading

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

Whither Go Interest Rates?

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

Posted in Consumers, Economy, Housing, housing market, Politics, Weekly Financial News | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Where Have All the Profits Gone?

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

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

Who Is Killing Our Children?

Popular Economics Weekly The fact that the NRA contributed $30 million to Donald Trump’s campaign is all we need to know about who is responsible for deaths of 14 high school children and 3 adults in Florida, or the 58 … Continue reading

Posted in Politics, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Why the ‘Yuge’ Stock Market Selloff?

Popular Economics Weekly The quick answer is that too much money is chasing too few stocks, believe it or not. The record low interest rates—the 10-year treasury yield just dropped back to 2.75 percent from 2.85 percent before Friday’s selloff—is … Continue reading

Posted in Economy, Macro Economics, Politics, Weekly Financial News | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment