By Rick Manning Joe Biden’s inflation has caused a banking crisis, which came to a head last year with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature due to the near tripling of interest rates on new bonds, which destroyed the value of the low-interest bonds in […]

By Robert Romano Since 1963 through 2022, the percent growth of revenues has averaged 6.9 percent a year to its present level of $4.65 trillion, according to data compiled by the White House Office of Management and Budget . In the meantime, mandatory spending including net interest owed on the national debt has grown an average 8.87 percent a year to its current […]

By Robert Romano The consumer price index has increased a total of 17.6 percent since President Joe Biden took office, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics . In the meantime, nominal personal income measured by the Bureau of Economic Analysis has only increased by 15 percent since Feb. 2021. By that measure alone, the American people are still not better […]

By Rick Manning We need a debt commission like the one U.S. Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) is offering in the  Debt Commission Act of 2024 . America is in a debt death spiral,  with OMB projecting the national debt to rise to $50 trillion by 2033 , and it is unclear whether Congress will ever have the political will to do something about it. One […]

By Robert Romano Consumer prices experienced a 0.3 percent increase in the December amid jumps in electricity, shelter and medical care services, growing at 3.4 percent rate over 12 months, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while producer prices cooled off for the third month in […]

By Robert Romano Legislation offered by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the “Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2024,” would conduct an audit of the U.S. Federal Reserve by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) for the first time since the Dodd-Frank legislation of 2010 required an audit of the central bank’s purchases of mortgage-backed securities. […]

By Robert Romano The number of Americans not in the labor force increased by 845,000 to 100.5 million Dec. 2023, according the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) household survey, including 436,000 who were over the age of 65 , as the Baby Boomer retirement wave continues en force. In the same month, 635,000 fewer Americans reported having jobs on a seasonal basis, 145,000 of whom were seniors (although seniors are measured by BLS on […]

By Robert Romano The Federal Reserve on Dec. 13 held the Federal Funds Rate—the rate at which banks lend to each other—steady at 5.25 percent to 5.5 percent, as the consumer inflation once again cooled to 12-month average level of 3.1 percent, according to the latest data compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics . Leading the cooldown were […]

By Robert Romano “Anti-woke economic terrorists have now wiped out $5 trillion in stock value.” That was a headline from Afru.com bemoaning the sideways performance of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) funds the past year or so, accusing anyone opposed to ESG with inflicting “economic terrorism” and “erod[ing] financial portfolios of […]

By Rick Manning Imagine a regulatory body of the United States government deciding that people who pay their bills should subsidize those who don’t. Well, imagine no more.  The constitutionally dubious Consumer Financial Protection Board (CFPB) has a proposed rule (Regulation Z) that would lower the penalty […]