Tag Archives: economics

Plenty of Available Jobs!

Financial FAQs As a precursor to July’s unemployment report, the Labor Department’s JOLTS report that measures the number of job openings—jobs waiting to be filled—has just come out. The number of openings is still the highest in decades, per the … Continue reading

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Make America More Equal Again!

Answering Kennedy’s Call Piketty-Saez I have a suggestion for a campaign motto I first wrote about in a 2017 Huffington Post piece that could give a boost to VP Harris’s presidential campaign. Instead of Trump’s slogan, “Make America Great Again.” … Continue reading

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Much Improved Q2 Economic Growth

Financial FAQs Today’s second quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew 2.8 percent, double first quarter’s 1.4 percent, which will give a huge boost to confidence that no recession is imminent, but also enough ammunition for the inflation hawks that say … Continue reading

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Consumers Not So Confident?

The Mortgage Corner What are we to make of the Conference Board’s latest confidence survey? “The decline in confidence between May and June was centered on consumers aged 35-54. By contrast, those under 35 and those 55 and older saw … Continue reading

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Retail Sales Falter–What May Follow?

Financial FAQs American consumers are tiring after two years of no relief from higher prices and interest rates. They are now looking for bargains everywhere in the latest retail sales report from the Census Bureau. It’s the second month of … Continue reading

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Greater Lawlessness Causes Great Recessions

Financial FAQs I began writing about Republicans’ disregard for laws in 2012 after the Great Recession of 2007-09, in which as many as 8 million jobs were lost. But not the Republican Party’s lawlessness, though it has always been the … Continue reading

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Where’s the Recession–Part II?

Financial FAQs The unemployment report for May had little weakness, further evidence that the recent Harris poll results—in which 55 percent of those surveyed believed the US is in a recession—doesn’t reflect reality. In fact, total nonfarm payroll employment increased … Continue reading

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Where’s the Recession?

Financial FAQs The most recent Harris-Guardian poll found 56 percent of those surveyed thought the US was in a recession. And 49 percent believed unemployment was at a 50-year high. How is that possible when the economic facts are exactly … Continue reading

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Q2 Economic Growth Any Better?

The Mortgage Corner The initial estimate of first quarter 2024 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth was less than expected (1.6%), causing financial markets to panic, even though economic growth is better than the initial estimate is reporting, I said last … Continue reading

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Why the Inflation Confusion?

Popular Economics Weekly Most pundits (and propagandists) don’t know who to blame for ‘sticky’ inflation, so they blame those who haven’t caused it—such as the current administration or the Federal Reserve. But the sudden rise in prices of the past … Continue reading

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