Shrink the State. End the Fed. Balance the budget. Make a profit. Leave an inheritance.
Gary North
The figure for first-time jobless claims — unemployment insurance claims — jumped to 360,000 last week. Anything above 350,000 is considered poor job growth. The figure had been below 330,000 the week before. The trend had been down. There were lots of stories on “happy days are here again.” Then, without warning, the figure wiped [...]
Continue reading →Greece has a 60% unemployment rate for people in the 18-25 age bracket. Think of this. This is a generation that is unlikely ever to save their career plans out of the recession that has overtaken Greece and is getting worse. It will mar them for the rest of their lives. The experts said this [...]
Continue reading →Unemployment has fallen, but it is still in recession-level territory. With respect to long-term unemployment (15 weeks to 26 weeks), it is rising fast. To prevent a return to 2008 numbers, the Federal Reserve creates $1 trillion a year to buy government bonds.
Continue reading →American consumers in March decided to slow their rate of borrowing on their credit cards. This caught economists by surprise. In February, they borrowed $18.6 billion. That looked as though the recovery was taking hold. But in March, they hit the brakes: $7.97 billion. “Estimates of the 31 economists surveyed by Bloomberg ranged from gains [...]
Continue reading →If the economy is growing, why are sales down? Consumers are cutting back or barely staying even. But corporate profits (earnings) are high. How is this possible? Cost-cutting. How? They are not hiring. Cost-cutting is a good thing, as long as you are not the source of the savings. With unemployment over 11 million, cost-cutting [...]
Continue reading →The recession in Europe has spread into every large nation. Still, price are rising. The European Central Bank is powerless. It has officially set lending rates at 0.75%. Still, the economies are crashing. Greece has a 27% unemployment rate. So does Spain. Now there is talk of a rate cut by the ECB. To which [...]
Continue reading →The economic recovery rolls on. The number of American households receiving food stamps has hit 23 million. This is 23 million out of 115 million households. That’s 20%. The government has a solution. Stop calling them food stamps. It has now issued cards that look just like credit cards. Also, it has changed the name [...]
Continue reading →Orders for durable goods that are expected to last three years or longer fell 5.7% on March. This was a substantial decline. For the year, durable goods orders are unchanged from a year ago. Durable goods purchases indicate the willingness of Americans to buy goods that are not the normal day-by-day goods, which tend to [...]
Continue reading →Anything below a figure of 50 is considered recession level. In March, it was 44. In April, it was 42. Economists had expected an increase to 45. Too many buyers cannot get credit, despite low mortgage rates. The low rates are a benefit only if a borrower can qualify for the loan. Home builders say [...]
Continue reading →My former partner (Mauldin) and my former stock broker (Schiff) square off. This is the way to get issues clearer. It’s muddle-through economics vs. the Austrian theory of the business cycle. My view: it’s time to prepare personally for the impact of the Austrian theory of the business cycle by taking advantage of Bernanke’s monetary [...]
Continue reading →