US Economy: Unfilled jobs, unemployment and price rises show Biden's spending plans carry major risks - by W. James Antle III

We're a long way from the stagflation of those bad old days under President Jimmy Carter, with the economy growing at a brisk 6.4 percent annual rate as the world reopens and the pandemic recedes. Still, a recent spate of bad economic news in what should be a fairly robust recovery is a warning that President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats' approach to fiscal policy could reap negative unintended consequences.

Read more at: W. James Antle III: Unfilled jobs, unemployment and price rises show Biden's spending plans carry major risks

US Economy Poll: Americans More Pessimistic About Economic Future

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 41% of American Adults say the U.S. economy will be weaker a year from now. Thirty-seven percent (37%) say the economy will be stronger in a year, and 13% expect it to be about the same.

Read more at: Americans More Pessimistic About Economic Future - Rasmussen Reports®

U.S. economy contracted an estimated 3.5% in 2020, worst drop since WW2

The U.S. economy contracted 3.5 per cent in 2020, the Commerce Department reported Thursday, the worst economic freeze since the end of the Second World War.

The report estimated that the nation's gross domestic product — its total output of goods and services — slowed sharply in the October-December quarter after a record 33.4 per cent surge in the July-September quarter. That gain had followed a record-shattering annual plunge of 31.4 per cent in the April-June quarter.

The economy grew at a four per cent annual rate in the final three months of 2020.

The report estimated that the nation's gross domestic product — its total output of goods and services — slowed sharply in the October-December quarter after a record 33.4 per cent surge in the July-September quarter. That gain had followed a record-shattering annual plunge of 31.4 per cent in the April-June quarter.

The economy grew at a four per cent annual rate in the final three months of 2020.

Read more at:U.S. economy contracted an estimated 3.5% in 2020, worst drop since WW2 | CBC News

US Economy: Analysis: Wall Street brushes off political turmoil, looks to economic rebound

Wall Street, despite major social and political problems still upbeat about US Economy.

Read more at: Analysis: Wall Street brushes off political turmoil, looks to economic rebound | Reuters

US Economy Poll: Americans Wary That Stock Market Bubble Will Burst

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 61% of American Adults are at least somewhat concerned that the stock market bubble will burst and push the economy back into recession with 23% who are Very Concerned. Twenty-five percent (25%) don't share that fear, but that includes only seven percent (7%) who are Not at All Concerned.

Read more at Americans Wary That Stock Market Bubble Will Burst - Rasmussen Reports®

US Economy: S&P 500, Dow close at record highs, dollar gains at end of tumultuous year

All three major indexes gained ground, with the Dow and S&P 500 picking up steam in the session’s final minutes to exit 2020 at record highs. Over the course of a historic year, the indexes both roared and plummeted as economic shutdowns to contain the coronavirus brought markets to their knees.

Read more at:S&P 500, Dow close at record highs, dollar gains at end of tumultuous year | Reuters

US Economy: How a weaker dollar could help fuel a commodities boom in 2021

Long-suffering commodity markets may have turned a corner after a pandemic-induced collapse in 2020. What happens next may depend on the fate of the U.S. dollar.

“The only way to get commodities moving in an inflationary, buying power way is a weaker dollar,” said Doug King, head of RCMA’s Merchant Commodity Fund and one of the world’s best known commodity traders, in an interview with MarketWatch.

Read more at: How a weaker dollar could help fuel a commodities boom in 2021 - MarketWatch

US Economy - the great divide between Wall Street and Main Street: as thousands Line Up In Dallas For North Texas Food Bank’s ‘Largest Mobile Food Distribution Ever’

Thousands of families lined up in Dallas on Saturday for a giveaway hosted by the North Texas Food Bank, and the organization called it its largest ever.

Organizers said the NTFB gave away over 7,000 turkeys and around 600,000 pounds of food in Fair Park to those families in need as the holidays approach and the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

Saturday’s event was also the NTFB’s fifth food giveaway in Fair Park since the pandemic began in March.

Note EU-Digest: US Economy: Wall Street versus Main street - total disparity - the recent Wall Street bounce can be better described as the US Economy's "Dead Cat bounce" , before "the walls from Jericho came tumbling down ".

Read more at: Thousands Line Up In Dallas For North Texas Food Bank’s ‘Largest Mobile Food Distribution Ever’ – CBS Dallas / Fort Worth

USA: Dow on verge of 30,000 and first record close in 10 months on back of Apple’s stock surge

The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Monday was knocking on the door of a psychologically significant 30,000 milestone, which would mark the first such round-number level for the benchmark since mid January as the stock market attempts to punch higher in the wake of the volatility inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read more at: Dow on verge of 30,000 and first record close in 10 months on back of Apple's stock surge - MarketWatch

US Economy: It is time to stop looking at the US economy from Wall Street - by Cristina Ramirez

Crises have a way of turning existing cracks in political and economic systems into fault lines. They bring to light what has been hiding beneath the surface. This is why the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic, the most serious global health crisis in a century, has exposed the many pre-existing weaknesses of the US economy and laid bare the nation’s failure to judge the economy by what actually matters: How it works for working and middle-class Americans. 

In a matter of weeks, the pandemic left 26 million Americans unemployed and food banks overwhelmed. As one in four workers in the country are not entitled to a single day of paid sick leave, COVID-19 also forced many Americans to choose between staying healthy and putting food on their tables. It brought to the surface the growing economic precarity of tens of millions of Americans which Wall Street, and many in Washington, have long been ignoring.

While some economists and politicians, such as Treasury Secretary and former Goldman Sachs Executive Steven Mnuchin, claim that the American economy was doing just fine before the start of the pandemic, the truth is many Americans have been living on the verge of economic collapse long before COVID-19 reached the country. After the 2008 economic crash, Wall Street and big corporations rebounded quickly, but millions of Americans did not. 

The likes of Mnuchin get away with claiming the US economy was doing brilliantly before the outbreak because they judge economic success merely by the success and profitability of big corporations and not the economic stability and wellbeing of ordinary Americans, such as small business owners, warehouse workers and delivery drivers. 

If Mnuchin judged the health of the US economy by how well everyday people are coping, he would have seen that things were not so rosy on “Main Street” even before COVID-19.

Read more at: 
It is time to stop looking at the US economy from Wall Street | US & Canada | Al Jazeera

USA: The Economic Recovery Story Is As Fake As Ever - by Jeffrey Snider

Disastrous to employment. Absolutely right. And in the more modern, 21^st century sense it doesn’t even have to be outright deflation anymore. We’ve seen time and again that a realistic threat is all it takes (a reminder about what happened last September before this March).

Familiar to us, if not always easily recognizable, it’s the very hazard of unsolved, chronic liquidity risks that spikes the dollar, keeps interest rates low (interest rate fallacy), and, as Keynes said, is therefore disastrous to employment by the introduction of what current Economists and central bankers otherwise call, while they do everything humanly possible to avoid recognizing, macro slack.

Bernanke, like his predecessors and successors, claims to be a keen follower of Keynes anyway.

What comes next is the weekly reminder about the labor market; initial jobless claims were 870k last week. That is, still, in the middle of September, 200k more than any of the worst weeks on record before March. And this latest “disastrous to employment” comes to us on top of the macro slack which has already forced the Fed to redefine (undefine, really) their whole conception of full employment.

They’ve got everything covered. Recovery’s in the bag. That’s the story, and it’s one with all the same characters, all the same scenery, and, least surprising of all, the same ending.

Read more at:
The Economic Recovery Story Is As Fake As Ever | RealClearMarkets

USA: An 'ominous’ report reminds us the U.S. economy is far from OK - by Sam Ro

On the one hand, we should be encouraged by how much the ;economy has improved since the most intense days of the Covid-19 pandemic." On the other hand, the economy is far from fully recovered , but the good news is that this was the fourth consecutive week the number was below 1 million.

Read more at: An 'ominous’ report reminds us the U.S. economy is far from OK: Morning Brief

US Economy: Tech leads Wall Street sell-off, investors eye slow recovery - "and it will get worse say experts."

The technology-centric Nasdaq led the declines as its heavyweight stocks took a hit including Facebook Inc (FB.O), Apple Inc (AAPL.O), Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), Microsoft Inc (MSFT.O) and Google-parent Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) which were all down between 4% and 7%.

The five stocks, deemed stay-at-home winners during the coronavirus crisis, also account for roughly a quarter of the S&P 500’s market value and have driven the stock market’s narrow technology-led recovery from the pandemic lows hit in March.

The Philadelphia chip index .SOX and the S&P tech sector .SPLRCT also dropped more than 5% each.

The pullback comes a day after the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed at record levels and the Dow came within 1.5% of its February peak, powered by fiscal and monetary support hopes for a swift economic recovery. But some participants said investors had become too optimistic.

Read more at: Tech leads Wall Street sell-off, investors eye slow recovery - Reuters

US Economy - airline industry: United Airlines to cut 16,370 jobs as the pandemic rages

Chicago-based United had over 90,000 employees before the pandemic brought the industry to a near standstill in March and had warned in July that 36,000 jobs were at risk of involuntary furloughs as demand remains weak. 

Read more at: 
United Airlines to cut 16,370 jobs as the pandemic rages - Reuters

America's economy just had its worst quarter on record

The US economy contracted at a 32.9% annual rate from April through June, its worst drop on record, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said Thursday.

Read more at:
America's economy just had its worst quarter on record - CNN

US Economy: Morgue Testing the US Economy - by J. Bradford DeLong

US national income and output in the first quarter of 2020 was 1.25% below what it had been in the fourth quarter of 2019, but still 9.5% above what it would be by the second quarter of this year. Now that US national income has plunged 12% below what it was at the start of the year, what should we expect for the third quarter?

America could always turn out to be lucky; but betting on that would not be prudent. According to Austan Goolsbee and Chad Syverson of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, it was voluntary self-protection, rather than legislated restrictions on activity, that drove most of the decline in consumer spending this spring. Moreover, they warn that, “If repealing lockdowns leads to a fast enough increase in COVID infections and deaths and a concomitant withdrawal of consumers from the marketplace,” doing so “might ultimately end up harming business activity.”

Read more at:
Morgue Testing the US Economy by J. Bradford DeLong - Project Syndicate

US Economy: The U.S. can 'change the world' by devaluing the dollar, analyst says

U.S. policymakers could “change the world” by devaluing the dollar, one analyst has claimed.

Speaking to CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Monday, independent macro advisor Hugh Hendry said quantitative easing programs — where central banks buy assets like government bonds to inject liquidity into the economy — were not working.

Instead of targeting bonds as a form of economic stimulus, policymakers should look to the value of the greenback, he suggested.

Quantitative easing — we’re being missold something,” Hendry argued. “Simply publishing or expanding these inert central bank reserves and trying to scare us all to death that they’re actually printing real money is a fraud.”

The underlying problem, he claimed, is that there is a shortage of dollars in the global market.

“America has decided over several decades to impose a global dollar standard, a monetary standard on the rest of the world,”

Hendry said. “It’s one thing to be the king, (but) you have to behave regally, you have to behave like the king. So if you’re going to impose a dollar standard on the world, you have to stand by and provide sufficient liquidity. And that’s actually where they’ve been failing.”

Hendry said the widespread sell-off in March, where global markets plummeted amid the height of fears around the coronavirus, was partially due to investors having to sell assets in order to create dollars and repay debt.

Read more: 
The U.S. can 'change the world' by devaluing the dollar, analyst says

US Economy: Coronavirus’s Spread Broadens Across U.S.

New coronavirus infections topped 15,000 in Florida, the largest one-day increase in any state since the start of the pandemic, while more than half U.S. states—including some that avoided a significant surge in the spring—were reporting steady climbs in new cases.

The number of daily infections in the U.S. surpassed 60,000 for a third consecutive day on Saturday, after reaching a record of more than 66,000 ases the previous day, data compiled by Johns Hopkins University showed.

Read more: Coronavirus’s Spread Broadens Across U.S. - WSJ

US Economy: Pressure builds on Senate Republicans to move in direction of $3 trillion coronavirus relief measure favored by Democrats

Sen. Roy Blunt, headed into a weekly a party lunch with fellowRepublicans and appeared to grin a bit behind his mask when asked if the price tag of the next coronavirus aid package would rise as the President Donald Trump’s polling worsened.

Read more at: 
Pressure builds on Senate Republicans to move in direction of $3 trillion coronavirus relief measure favored by Democrats - MarketWatch

USA: Reality Sinks in as Dow sinks more than 700 points as coronavirus surge shakes Wall Street

Stocks closed with steep losses  Wednesday as surging coronavirus cases in the U.S. and abroad dampen the global economic outlook.

Read more at; Dow sinks more than 700 points as coronavirus surge shakes Wall Street | TheHill