By Robert Romano The unemployment rate has ticked up off of historic lows to 3.7 percent in May, as 310,000 fewer Americans reported having jobs and those saying they were unemployed increased by 440,000, the latest data by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows . That’s still pretty low by historic standards, but nothing lasts forever. Following […]

By Robert Romano The U.S. House of Representatives easily passed H.R. 3746 , the Fiscal Responsibility Act, by a bipartisan majority of 314 to 117 on May 31 , with 149 Republicans and 165 Democrats voting in favor, and 71 Republicans and 46 Democrats opposed. The legislation, which now proceeds to the Senate, would suspend the $31.4 trillion national debt […]

By Robert Romano “Just confirmed by the non-partisan @USCBO… This will be the LARGEST SPENDING CUT that Congress has ever voted for in history. $2.13 Trillion!” That was House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in a May 30 Twitter post pointing to a newly generated Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate of the Fiscal […]

By Robert Romano There’s enough revenue to pay interest on the debt even if the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling is reached. Meaning, if the U.S. defaults on the debt on June 1, it will be because President Joe Biden chose not to make principal and interest payments […]

By Robert Romano “[I]t’s not a revenue problem, it’s a spending problem.” That was House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) speaking to reporters on May 17 following a meeting with President Joe Biden and Congressional leaders in both parties, attempting to reach an agreement on increasing the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling and budget spending […]

By Robert Romano Consumer inflation remained elevated in April, coming in at 4.9 percent over the past 12 months, according to the latest data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics , in part due to a cut in oil production by OPEC+ globally that pushed gasoline prices higher, which increased 2.7 percent last month. The news comes after […]

By Robert Romano “You just can’t. No one’s ever tied them together before.” That was President Joe Biden on MSNBC on May 6 , claiming that Congress has never increased the debt ceiling in exchange for budget, spending and regulatory changes. There’s only one problem. It’s completely false. Just in recent history, both the Budget Control Act of 2011 and the Contract With America Advancement Act of 1996 resolved disagreements between […]

By Robert Romano The unemployment rate still remains at historic lows of 3.4 percent in April, according to the latest data by the Bureau of Labor Statistics , amid other worrying signs for the U.S. economy including a continued collapse of job openings, a string of bank failure and an overall slowing Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In the survey, as […]

By Robert Romano The U.S. Federal Reserve has once again hiked interest that it charges banks in the wake of continued elevated inflation — which peaked at 9.1 percent in June 2022 — in a bid to calm what has been a lingering problem for the overheating economy, which slowed down to 1.1 percent annualized growth in the first quarter. Finally, the […]

By Robert Romano The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation put the $229.1 billion California-based First Republic Bank into receivership today on May 1, while the FDIC also entered into a “purchase and assumption agreement” with JP Morgan-Chase Bank for the nation’s largest […]