Economy

Despite the Biden administration’s furious denials, an increasing share of the American public thinks the U.S. economy is in a recession. The share of Americans who say the country is in a recession rose to 61 percent recent, polling data from the Economist and YouGov indicates . That is up from 57 percent a month ago . Last week, Presdident Joe Biden went all out to play down the Commerce Department’s report that the economy had contracted for a second consecutive quarter, a popular definition of a recession. Biden cited very low unemployment rates to defend his management of the nation’s economic affairs. The unemployment rate in June was 3.6 percent. “That doesn’t sound like a recession to me,” Biden said. A broad range of Americans disagree. The polling shows that more than 60 percent of both men and women say we’re in a recession. Whites with college degrees and without say we’re in a recession. A majority of Hispanic Americans say we’re in a recession. The … [Read more...] about Biden Spin Fail: Majorities of Blacks, Whites, Hispanics Say We’re in A Recession

President Joe Biden’s job approval on a series of categories, including jobs and the economy, is significantly lower than former President Donald Trump’s ratings before leaving office, a recent Harvard Harris survey reveals. Biden’s overall approval rating remains low, hanging at 38 percent, according to the survey. That reflects a 24 percent drop from the 62 percent approval he saw in June 2021. It has been over a year since Biden has seen an approval rating above 50 percent in this particular survey. The president fails to perform much better on individual issues. In fact, he does not have a positive approval on any issue, scoring highest on the Chinese coronavirus, but only garnering 48 percent support — less than a majority. For instance, Biden now has a 36 percent approval on the economy. That is far worse than the 56 percent approval Trump saw in January 2021, prior to leaving office. This trend continues for the vast majority of issues. Stimulating jobs: … [Read more...] about Poll: Donald Trump Outperforms Joe Biden on Jobs, Economy, Crime

Prominent Democrats said six times that raising taxes during a recession was a bad idea, yet the Democrats are seeking to raise taxes on companies over the weekend. While President Joe Biden’s economy entered a recession last month, he is pushing Congressional Democrats to ram through a reconciliation bill–  so-called the “Inflation Reduction Act.” The bill imposes a minimum tax on corporations with over $1 billion in profits. Democrats in the past have opposed raising taxes on corporations during a recession. In 2009, then-President Barack Obama stated , “You don’t raise taxes in a recession… The last thing you want to do is to raise taxes in the middle of a recession.” FLASHBACK — Barack Obama in 2010: "You don't raise taxes in a recession." "The last thing you want to do is to raise taxes in the middle of a recession." Democrats in 2022 during the #BidenRecession : Let's raise taxes! pic.twitter.com/K49IZW3WBx — Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) July 28, … [Read more...] about 6 Times Democrats Said Raising Taxes During Recession Is a Bad Idea

Jan Struijs, president of the Dutch police union, has claimed his country, the Netherlands, is a narco-state, with drug dealing criminals operating a parallel economy. Struijis says the Netherlands, often praised by left-liberals for its drug decriminalisation policies , is now a “narco-state 2.0” where criminal dealers have become so influential they compete with the official Dutch economy. “I call the Netherlands a narco-state 2.0 because drugs pump so much money into the legal economy that it takes over. It undermines democracy but also the economy,” Struijis told Swedish broadcaster SVT. According to SVT, the massive illegal drugs black economy has influenced various parts of the official economy of the Netherlands, including housing prices and some companies that operate legal businesses but have been taken over by drug dealing criminals. Along with influencing on the economy, drug dealing groups and mafias have also threatened and killed journalists and lawyers in … [Read more...] about Police Union Head: Netherlands Now a Narco-State with Parallel Economy

Alfredo Ortiz of Job Creators Network writes in FoxBusiness that the so-called Inflation Reduction Act promises to create particular hardships for small businesses and should be blocked by moderate, vulnerable House Democrats: Inflation continues to hover near a 41-year high. The Labor Department announced Wednesday that consumer prices rose by 8.5% over the last year. Last Friday, the monthly jobs report indicated that average wages grew by 5.2%, meaning inflation is increasing by nearly two-thirds faster than earnings. Americans are suffering from a Biden pay cut of declining real wages while the economy is in recession. The misnamed Inflation Reduction Act, which Senate Democrats passed Sunday, would only fuel this inflationary fire. It would spend $433 billion on Democrats’ climate and healthcare projects, including extending expanded ObamaCare subsidies that will inflate health care premiums. It would also increase taxes on businesses, including small businesses, by … [Read more...] about Ortiz: Moderate Democrats Should Spike the Inflation Reduction Act

Indian Commerce Secretary B.V.R. Subrahmanyam predicted this week that New Delhi will conduct up to $9 billion worth of trade with Russia and Sri Lanka combined over the next two months, Reuters reported on Wednesday. “The rupee-denominated sales will be a big, big advantage,” Subrahmanyam told reporters on August 2. “I see in the next two months $8-$9 billion of trade with Russia and Sri Lanka.” The Indian commerce secretary referred to a decision by the Reserve Bank of India on July 11 to allow importers and exporters to settle trade in rupees. The rupee is the currency of India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Mauritius, and Seychelles. The decision will facilitate easier trade between India and Russia and India and Sri Lanka because it allows the foreign nations to base their transactions on a currency other than the U.S. dollar. The U.S. dollar, upon which the U.S. financial system is based , has dominated global trade transactions in recent decades and is often … [Read more...] about India Expects Up to $9 Billion in Trade with Russia, Sri Lanka in 2 Months

Poll findings suggest “U.S. cities could be facing an uptick in hunger and homelessness in the next coming months…” because of rampant inflation overseen by the Biden administration, Axios reported on Monday. The outlet spoke with Robert Blendon, the co-director of an NPR, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health survey which found that Americans are struggling to afford housing and “timely medical care for serious illnesses.” “It’s very striking,” Blendon told Axios. “We’re in an inflationary period here and it’s unusually broadly hitting minority communities even worse than everyone else.” In a sample of roughly 4,000 adults between May 16 – June 13, 2022, 60 percent of black and Latino households, 70 percent of Native American households, 44 percent of white households, and 36 percent of Asian households say inflation is causing serious financial hardship. The poll also found that 16 percent of black renters, 10 percent of … [Read more...] about Report: Inflation Could Cause ‘Uptick in Hunger, Homelessness’

China’s trade with Russia from January to July increased by nearly 30 percent from the same period last year to reach $97.71 billion, China’s state-run Global Times reported Sunday. China’s General Administration of Customs released new data on August 7 showing that Beijing’s trade with Moscow rose by 29 percent in the first seven months of 2022 compared to the same time frame in 2021. Detailing the development on Sunday, the Global Times wrote: Statistics show that in July, the trade volume between China and Russia came in at $16.79 billion. Among them, China’s exports to Russia amounted to $6.77 billion, while China’s imports from Russia amounted to $10.01 billion, both expanding from June. China’s exports to Russia expanded 5.2 percent to $36.27 billion, widening from the 2.1 percent during the January-June period. China’s imports from Russia grew 48.8 percent from a year earlier to $61.44 billion in the first seven months. The state customs data further … [Read more...] about China Claims Trade with Russia Jumped 30% in First Half of 2022

What will it take to bring inflation down to the percent rate the Federal Reserve says it continues to target? The current surveys of public opinion imply that it will not take much. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s survey found that only 40 percent or so of the public thinks that unemployment will be higher a year from now while the media expectation for inflation came down to 6.2 percent over the next year and 3.2 percent over the next three years. A survey by Rasmussen found that only 35 percent of the public expected unemployment to rise over the next year. Let’s be perfectly clear about this. Unless the Federal Reserve fails utterly in its attempt to bring down the rate of inflation over the next year, the unemployment rate will absolutely be higher than the 3.5 percent rate registered in July. Even if the Fed were not tightening monetary conditions, it would be a very good bet that the unemployment rate would rise for the simple fact that it is at a historically … [Read more...] about Breitbart Business Digest: How Much Does Unemployment Need To Rise to Tame Inflation?

Prices charged by U.S. businesses were up 9.8 percent in July compared with a year ago, the smallest gain this year. The Department of Labor said Tuesday that its Producer Price Index for final demand fell 0.5 percent in July compared with a month earlier, largely because gasoline and oil prices fell. Economists had expected an annual rise of 10.3 percent and a monthly increase of 0.3 percent.  Last month, the Producer Price Index was up 11.3 percent compared with June of 2021 and 1.1 percent compared with the prior month. The Producer Price Index hit a record high year-to-year of 11.6 percent in March. Excluding foods, energy, and trade services, producer prices moved up 0.2 percent in July, a deceleration from the 0.3-percent rise in June. For the 12 months ended in July, the index for final demand less foods, energy, and trade services increased 5.8 percent, a slowdown from the 6.4 percent annual gain in the prior month. The index for final demand goods—ready-to-use … [Read more...] about Producer Prices Up 9.8% as Inflation Eases Slightly