Gen X borrowers, including those age 50 to 61, have the highest average student-loan balance of any age group. Many of them either reached college age as the modern federal student-loan system was forming or borrowed later, likely on behalf of their children.
'tis but a flesh wound...
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Chinese car sales in China fell by 21.5% in April, driven by lower demand for gasoline-powered vehicles amid higher fuel prices. EV demand failed to offset the drop in internal combustion engine vehicle sales, as well...
Executives across retail, restaurants and packaged goods indicated they are increasingly worried about US shoppers - especially those from the" lower half" of the K-shaped economy - with tighter budgets amid surging gas prices, and consumer electronics prices through the roof thanks to record memory chip prices.
For the 4th year in a row: Normal-ish mortgage rates, too-high prices, and the “lock-in effect” from the Fed’s reckless interest-rate repression.
Empires don’t announce their decline... They reveal it in the data...
"The economy, you know, with the raw materials going up, labor is going – it’s just everything is escalating..."
Too many owners bought at the height of the pandemic rush and the peak of pricing. Now they're stuck trying to sell $250,000 homes for $600,000 or more...
The US Court of International Trade's decision to invalidate President Donald Trump's latest set of universal tariffs is likely to be a temporary setback and a minor one.
According to US households, the US is already gripped by bitter stagflation.
Channelling John Lennon, Trump indicated that progress in negotiations with Iran had convinced him to ‘give peace a chance’, but that the US blockade of Iranian ports would remain in place for now...
Consumers of German economic media have not missed that the ideological direction fight in the country’s financial press has been decided: the statists have pushed the advocates of freedom to the margins. According to German press, the last remaining hope in times of crisis is the State.
...sales volume weakness and soaring input costs and selling prices...
Europe is not yet in recession, but the latest business and consumer surveys show that the risk is no longer remote...
In Germany, signs of a sharp rise in inflation are multiplying. Naturally, the Hormuz crisis is to blame. It serves as a fig leaf for Germany’s highly inflationary transformation into a socialist shortage economy.
The initial stockpile fill would be driven chiefly by availability, reflecting the reality that some of the roughly 60 minerals under consideration are produced only in limited geographies and, in some cases, remain heavily influenced by China...
Key data releases this week will be the US jobs report and the UofMichigan consumer survey. Other economic events feature the US Treasury quarterly refunding announcement and rate decisions in Australia, Norway and Sweden. Corporate earnings include AMD and Palantir.
...fifth straight monthly rise in core orders (amid war).
“By activating its blocking measures for the first time since adopting the rule in 2021, China is demonstrating a lower threshold for deploying its legal and regulatory toolkit to counter US sanctions,”
There's so much bad news for Democrat controlled cities it's becoming difficult to keep up...
