Category Archives: Weekly Financial News

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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First-Time Homebuyers Are Back

The Mortgage Corner MarketWatch’s Andrea Riquier says first-time homebuyers aren’t doing so bad, if we look at more than the NARealtor’s existing-home sales data. First-timers’ sales data is important because they usually choose so-called “entry-level” homes that are affordable 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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This Is Not a Recession!

Financial FAQs fred stlouisfed.org. There is no ‘looming’ recession about to happen, in spite of the warnings from pundits; none of whom are reputable economists to date. For instance, Trump’s new pick for the Federal Reserve Board is not a … Continue reading

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Near-Record Home Sales Combine with Record Low Interest Rates

The Mortgage Corner Graph: Econoday Existing-home sales rebounded strongly in February, experiencing the largest month-over-month gain since December 2015, according to the National Association of Realtors. Three of the four major U.S. regions saw sales gains, while the Northeast remained … Continue reading

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Who’s Most Damaged by Trade Wars??

Popular Economics Weekly Why cannot the Trump administration make $1 + $1 = $2? It’s obvious to all major economists and anyone with basic arithmetic skills that foreign tariffs not only raise the prices of those imports to US, which … Continue reading

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