U.S. retail sales dropped in February and the prior month’s gain was revised to a decline, calling into question the narrative that bigger gains in consumer spending would propel economic growth at the start of 2016. The 0.1 percent decline in purchases followed a revised 0.4 percent January decrease, Commerce Department figures showed Tuesday. Sales […]
By Michael Snyder Barack Obama recently stated that anyone that is claiming that America’s economy is in decline is “peddling fiction“. Well, if the economy is in such great shape, why are major retailers shutting down hundreds of stores all over the country? Last month, I wrote about the “retail apocalypse” that is sweeping the […]
By Herman Cain It happened again on Friday. Two pieces of news that don’t seem possible to square with one another. On the one hand, the U-3 unemployment rate declined to 4.9 percent, which sounds like wonderful news! On the other hand, the economy only created 151,000 new jobs, which is not even enough to […]
Major retailers in the United States are shutting down hundreds of stores, and shoppers are reporting alarmingly bare shelves in many retail locations that are still open all over the country. It appears that the retail apocalypse that made so many headlines in 2015 has gone to an entirely new level as we enter 2016. […]
Millions of people around the world are emerging from poverty thanks to rising economic freedom. But by sharp contrast,America’s economic freedom has been on a declining path over the past decade. According to the 2016 Index of Economic Freedom, an annual publication by The Heritage Foundation, America’s economic freedom has tumbled. With losses of economic […]
By Cal Thomas Movie sequels are rarely as good as the original films on which they’re based. The same dictum, it appears, holds for finance. The 2008 housing market collapse was bad enough, but it appears now that we’re on the verge of experiencing it all again. And the financial sequel, working from a similar […]
By Michael Snyder Something has just happened that has signaled a recession every single time that it has occurred since World War I. 16 times since 1919 there have been at least 8 month-over-month declines in industrial production during the preceding 12 month period, and in each of those 16 instances the U.S. economy has […]
Further proof that the laws of economics don’t give a flying leap about FEEEEELINGS, we have this news from Wal-Mart. (Watch – some butthurt Social Justice Cultist is going to start protesting the natural way the economy works. Sorry, kiddos. You can’t legislate human nature). According to this, Wal-Mart has announced the closure of 269 […]
By Michael Snyder The world didn’t completely fall apart in 2015, but it is undeniable that an immense amount of damage was done to the U.S. economy. This year the middle class continued to deteriorate, more Americans than ever found themselves living in poverty, and the debt bubble that we are living in expanded to […]
And things will continue to unravel as we move into 2016 and beyond… A Double Dip By The ISM Manufacturing Index Into Contraction Territory Preceded The Previous Two Big Bear Markets For Stocks A key gauge of manufacturing activity has double-dipped into recession territory, but stock market investors don’t seem to care. History suggests, however, […]
