Tag: economy

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U.S. Federal Reserve Raises Interest Rates Due To Strong Economic


 Reuters reports that, thanks to solid economic growth, interest rates will rise by a quarter point for now with the possibility of more increases in the coming months.

The U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter point on Wednesday and signaled a faster pace of increases in 2017 as the Trump administration takes over with promises to boost growth through tax cuts, spending and deregulation.

The rate increase, regarded as a virtual certainty by financial markets in the wake of a string of generally strong economic reports, raised the target federal funds rate 25 basis points to between 0.50 percent and 0.75 percent.

“In view of realized and expected labor market conditions and inflation, the committee decided to raise the target range,” the central bank’s policy-setting committee said in its unanimous statement after a two-day meeting.

“Job gains have been solid in recent months and the unemployment rate has declined,” the Fed said, noting that market-based measures of inflation compensation had moved up “considerably.”

The rate increase was the first since last December and only the second since the 2007-2009 financial crisis, when the Fed cut rates to near zero and deployed other tools such as massive bond purchases to stabilize the economy.

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GDP Grows By 2.9% – Biggest Gain Since 2014

Donald Trump can rant and rave all he wants to about how “disastrous” and “terrible” the U.S. economy is and how we are headed in the wrong direction, but the facts suggest otherwise.

The Wall Street Journal’s headline: “U.S. Economy Roars Back, Grew 2.9% in Third Quarter – Growth rate was the fastest recorded in two years”

Reuters: “Wall St. rises amid robust GDP data”

More from USA Today:

The economy bounced back from a prolonged slump in the third quarter as exports surged, businesses replenished depleted stocks and consumer spending picked up moderately.

The nation’s gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced in the economy, increased at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.9%, the Commerce Department said Friday, the biggest gain in two years. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast 2.6% growth.

Additionally, exports surged by 10% helping to close the trade gap.

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Americans’ Median Income Increased 5.2% In 2015

(graphic via CNN)

For the first time since 2007, the year before the Great Recession, the median household income increased to $56,516, up 5.2% from the previous year, according to data released by the Census Bureau today.

The 5.2% represents one of the largest annual increases since the Census Bureau began tracking such data.

Expect the good news to become campaign trail talking points for both Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump.

Trump has regularly made the point that household incomes are $4,000 lower than in 2000. And that would be true if we were talking 2014 data; Trump often uses the 2014  numbers as if they are current.

Look for Clinton to point to the news as evidence that the economy is improving.

Additionally, the poverty rate dropped 1.3% to 13.5% in 2015.

So what constitutes for the big jump in median income? 3.3 million more Americans were working full-time. Data shows 1.4 million more men and 1 million more women had jobs last year.

(source)

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Donald Trump’s “Economic Plan” Does Nothing For Middle Class America

Donald Trump made a big deal about unveiling his “economic plan” for America, hoping for a kind of campaign reset as he plummets in the polls.

The problem is, though, none of what he is proposing is visionary or innovative.

We learned “trickle down” economics don’t work. Giving big tax cuts to the wealthy with the hopes that the rich will “reinvest” those gains into new employees or higher wages is a fallacy. Doesn’t happen.

And eliminating the estate tax does nothing to encourage the economy to grow. It’s just a big giveaway to folks like Trump’s kids.

Once again Trump is attempting to do a little flim-flam action saying “look what I’ll do,” when in reality none of this will actually “do” anything.

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U.S. Job Growth Surges In U.S. As Unemployment Falls To 7.5 Year Low

The unemployment rate in America fell to 5% in October as non-farm payrolls added 271,000 jobs last month. This represents the lowest unemployment level in seven and a half years.

Additionally, with strong auto sales and average hourly earnings increasing by 9 cents, many economists see the economy as beginning to hit a solid stride.

As conservatives continue to attempt a woeful picture of the American economy, it’s easy to see between the dropping unemployment rate and a stock market that has more than doubled during President Obama’s administration that the U.S. has improved it’s economic outlook.

(source)

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Video Of The Day: Bill Maher On Economic Facts

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Bill Maher slams the Obama-hating 2016 Republican candidates a…
Watch: Bill Maher slams the Obama-hating 2016 Republican candidates at this week’s debate.Video by Occupy Democrats, LIKE our page for more!
Posted by Occupy Democrats on Saturday, September 19, 2015

Bill Maher pulls out facts in response to Republicans who say they want to “take our county back.”

Back to what, exactly?

I should note, and regular readers know this to be true, I’ve been saying exactly this for years now.

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Jeb Bush Should Ask His Brother About Working “Longer Hours”

Recently, GOP presidential hopeful Jeb Bush suggested the country could improve economically if Americans would work longer hours.

An ironic statement considering his brother took more vacation days than any other president in recent history.

As a matter of fact, it looks like Republicans like their vacay days a lot more than Democrats.

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Jeb Bush Says Americans Should Work Longer Hours – Hillary Clinton Thinks Americans Already Work Hard

Hillary Clinton tweeted this out in response to GOP presidential nominee Jeb Bush, who suggested that his plan to improve the economy included having working middle-class Americans work longer hours.

In an interview with the New Hampshire newspaper The Union Leader, Bush said, “My aspiration for the country and I believe we can achieve it, is 4 percent growth as far as the eye can see. Which means we have to be a lot more productive, workforce participation has to rise from its all-time modern lows. It means that people need to work longer hours.”

Hillary thinks Americans are already hard working.

If you look at the graph above, worker productivity has been on a steady climb for decades. It’s stagnation in the wages earned that’s affecting the economy.

Folks are working and producing just fine. It’s businesses making money and not passing on even a small portion of the rising profits to the average worker that’s the problem.

As the saying goes, “A rising tide should lift all boats.”