Tag Archives: interest rates

Why the Housing Shortage?

The Mortgage Corner How can we recover from our housing shortage that has resulted in record homelessness and a lack of affordability for many young households? FREDhousingstarts There haven’t been enough homes built to satisfy prospective home buyers for a … Continue reading

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Why the Recession Calls?

Financial FAQs The Conference Board’s Index of Leading Economic Indicators (LEI), a read on actual economic data rather than an opinion survey like its Consumer Confidence Index, has called a recession. Its Consumer Confidence Index is hinting at the same. … Continue reading

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The Too Dumb to Fail Party

Popular Economics Weekly “In November 2021, (President Biden) signed a $1 trillion infrastructure bill. Then, in August 2022, he signed the CHIPS bill, which invests $280 billion in semiconductor manufacturing. Days later, he signed the Inflation Reduction Act, which invests … Continue reading

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Retail Sales Continue Decline

Financial FAQs “Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for August 2025, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $732.0 billion, up 0.6 percent (±0.4 percent) from the previous month, … Continue reading

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Are We in a Recession?

Financial FAQs “The preliminary estimate of the Current Employment Statistics (CES) national benchmark revision to total nonfarm employment for March 2025 is -911,000 (-0.6 percent), the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. BLS.gov FREDunemployment There was a lot of … Continue reading

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Another Civil War?

Popular Economics Weekly “The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city. This is not a joke. This is not normal. Donald Trump isn’t a strongman, he’s a scared man. Illinois won’t be … Continue reading

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The Job Losses Begin

Popular Economics Weekly “Trump’s arbitrary, capricious, and mercurial decisions about tariffs and everything else that affects the economy have made it impossible for employers to make even modest predictions about the future. So they won’t hire.” Robert Reich, Former U.S. … Continue reading

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This Inflation Isn’t Temporary–Part II

Popular Economics Weekly From the same month one year ago, the PCE price index for July increased 2.6 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 2.9 percent from one year ago. BLS.gov BLS.gov The PCE price index is one … Continue reading

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It’s Taxation Without Representation

Financial FAQs “Oh, and as for all these tariffs: Whatever you think of them (and I am not a blanket opponent), they are taxes. They are sales taxes. Where in my copy of the United States Constitution does it say … Continue reading

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Can We Fix the Housing Shortage?

The Mortgage Corner “Privately-owned housing starts in July were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,428,000. This is 5.2 percent above the revised June estimate of 1,358,000 and is 12.9 percent above the July 2024 rate of 1,265,000. Single-family … Continue reading

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