Category Archives: Weekly Financial News

Where is Badly Needed Infrastructure Investment?

Financial FAQs The all-Republican congress and Whitehouse are making a serious mistake in letting politics and ideology get in the way of economic growth. Does anyone seriously believe their attempts to repeal Obamacare would work with so many of their … Continue reading

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Will There Be Tax Reform?

Popular Economics Weekly After Republicans’ failure to repeal Obamacare, they will now attempt to pass a budget, and tax reform plan. But the $1 trillion in spending cuts (mainly from Medicare) they hoped with the repeal of Obamacare, which would … Continue reading

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Retail Sales Back, But Not Consumers

The Mortgage Corner It turns out consumers decided to shop again in July, as retail sales surged in all categories. This includes online sales these days, as retailers adapt to the new reality that one large store size doesn’t fit … Continue reading

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What Happened to Rising Wages?

Popular Economics Weekly Everything should point to higher wages and salaries ahead for employees with a 4.3 percent unemployment rate and record corporate profits, but corporate profits go mainly to their executives and owners (and their stockholders) these days. The … Continue reading

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More Job Openings, Fewer Hirings Mean What?

Popular Economics Weekly The job market continues to fluctuate, as job openings rose sharply in June to 6.163 million from 5.702 million in May. Hires, however, fell sharply, to 5.356 million from 5.459 million. This data set can be volatile … Continue reading

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Another Great Jobs Report?

Financial FAQs No economist predicted another 209,000 private payroll jobs would be created in July, or that the last 2 months’ total would be 431,000, or the y-t-d total would be 1,290,000 payroll jobs created this year. But they should … Continue reading

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Great Q2 GDP Growth, But Q3?

Popular Economics Weekly Second quarter GDP came in at a 2.6 percent annualized growth rate. This is one of the best showings of the last 2 years and keeps overall growth at 2 percent; because first quarter’s growth was downwardly … Continue reading

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The End of Easy Money?

Popular Economics Weekly The Fed just completed its July FOMC meeting and said the sale of some of its $4.5 trillion in securities would begin this year. CNBC has predicted the first installment of $300B in sales could begin anytime. … Continue reading

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Home Sales Disappoint

The Mortgage Corner Existing-home sales were at a 5.52 million seasonally adjusted annual rate in June, the National Association of Realtors said Monday. That was 0.7 percent above the year-ago rate, but 1.8 percent lower than in May and marked … Continue reading

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Full Employment Is Here, But No Inflation (Revised)

Financial FAQs The Bureau of Labor’s JOLTS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey out Tuesday showed a huge boost in hiring and shrinkage of available jobs. What to make of it with almost nonexistent inflation, and the Fed’s Janet Yellen … Continue reading

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