By Robert Romano West Texas intermediate oil is crashing through its $30 a barrel support level in search of a new bottom, amid the ongoing correction in China, weak demand globally and no signs of production slowing down. While that is generally good news for consumers of products like gasoline, the […]

  By Robert Romano “I believe we’re already entering a recession in the U.S.” That was investor and market analyst Marc Faber’s prognosis of the U.S. economy on Dec. 29 headed into 2016, speaking on Bloomberg Television . Since then, oil has dropped to about $34 a barrel, a level not […]

By Robert Romano Tucked into the omnibus spending bill for the remainder of fiscal year 2016 was a $56.7 billion increase in the U.S. quota subscription to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) . This will double the current U.S. quota to $115.2 billion at today’s exchange rate . The legislation also puts a 2022 sunset on the now-$95.8 billion New Arrangements to Borrow, a […]

By Robert Romano After 7 years of historically low near-zero percent interest rates, the Federal Reserve finally hiked its benchmark interest rate to the new range of 0.25 percent to 0.50 percent on Dec. 16. Long have economists and other market observers warned that this move by the Fed would lead to higher interest rates for […]

By Robert Romano “I do believe that the country is inexorably changing [demographically]… [and] when you combine that demographic change with all the economic stresses that people have been going through — because of the financial crisis, because of technology, because of globalization, the fact that wages […]

By Rick Manning The House has passed the omnibus spending bill 316 to 113. It hit cloture in the Senate by a vote of 72 to 26 . The $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill effectively funds 9 of the last 12 months of the Obama agenda at higher spending levels in exchange for very little. The bill includes by virtue of not defunding it, funds for the implementation of Obamacare, […]

By Robert Romano “The $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill effectively funds 9 of the last 12 months of the Obama agenda at higher spending levels in exchange for very little.” That was Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning ’s take on the now-released omnibus spending bill for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2016 and tax extenders package. The legislation, said […]

By Robert Romano Is the Federal Reserve about to hike its key interest rate on Wednesday from near-zero percent that has been in place since 2008? “The Federal Reserve will likely raise interest rates this week,” the Washington Post’s Ylan Q. Mui confidently predicts in Wonkblog . “Federal Reserve set to raise rates in ‘historic’ moment for […]

By Robert Romano “To simply provide jobs for those who are newly entering the labor force probably requires under 100,000 jobs per month.” That was Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen testifying on Dec. 3 in front of Congress’ Joint Economic Committee , telling lawmakers why, demographically, nobody should really expect the economy to produce nearly as many jobs as it once did in decades past. […]

By Robert Romano 2.2 percent. That is what the annualized, inflation-adjusted growth rate of the economy is so far after three quarters in 2015, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reports . To get 3 percent growth for the year — a milestone the U.S. has not achieved since 2005 — the economy will […]