Economy

Rise in Delinquent Mortgage and Rental Payments Will Weigh Heavily on the Economy

With millions of Americans having recently entered unemployment, it was no surprise that many families were going to have difficulty paying rent and mortgages. But just how much difficulty they would have has surprised even pessimistic observers. Over 30% of US apartment renters failed to pay their April rent in...

Job Losses Pile Up as Economy Continues Spiraling Downward

As the US economy continues its self-inflicted contraction, job numbers continue to paint a picture of a severely damaged economy. Just about everywhere you turn, the numbers are going from bad to worse. And as long as millions of Americans remain under lockdown, those numbers won’t get better anytime...

Federal Reserve Blowing Bond Bubble Even Bigger

Whenever the Federal Reserve, or any government agency for that matter, intervenes in the economy, it is always going to end up picking winners and losers. Government intervention distorts economic activity, and very often in ways that are detrimental to the functioning of the economy. The Federal Reserve’s latest attempts...

Markets Are Still Unsettled, and the Fed’s Actions Continue to Backfire

The bad news just keeps getting worse for investors, as stock markets continue their slide. The Dow Jones lost 10% today, dropping over 2,350 points to end the day. Not even an unprecedented monetary policy action by the Fed was able to stop the loss, so investors who are...

Markets Are Going Crazy: Are Your Investments Safe?

If you thought the last two weeks were bad for stocks, they just went from bad to worse. The Dow Jones dropped almost 1,900 points to start the day, an over 7% drop. The S&P 500 dropped 7% too, triggering the New York Stock Exchange’s first circuit breaker, the...

Unexpected Fed Rate Cut Can’t Stop Stock Market Losses

In a move that hasn’t been made since the financial crisis, the Federal Reserve this morning announced that it was cutting its target federal funds rate by 50 basis points, to 1 to 1.25%. The move came just two weeks before the Federal Open Market Committee was scheduled to...

Think the Coronavirus Won’t Affect the US Economy? Think Again

There seems to be a great deal of complacency among many in the United States about the effect that the coronavirus will have on the US economy. Thus far it’s been treated as an issue that only affects China, and whose effects on the US economy will be limited....

Financial Media Trying to Push Narrative That Recession Odds Are Low

It’s funny sometimes how the mainstream financial media tries to push narratives that are completely at odds with reality. With business activity already slowing in the US, China, and elsewhere, and with the onset of the coronavirus seriously upsetting global supply chains, anyone could tell that 2020 is going...

Citi Analysts See Gold Over $2,000 Within 24 Months

It seems like just a couple weeks ago that analysts were predicting gold to end the year at $1,650. But gold was already pushing that level late last week, as fears about the coronavirus and slowing business activity drove a wave of safe haven buying. Now analysts are predicting...

Coronavirus Fears Hammering Stock Markets

After weeks of discounting the dangers of the coronavirus to the world economy, it seems that stock markets have finally gotten wise to the threat the virus plays to the global economy. The Dow Jones opened Monday down nearly 1,000 points as more negative news about the virus emerged....