Free Republic

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned Tuesday that America’s recent economic performance is partially the result of the country’s unsustainable fiscal practices, creating risks for the global economy. “The exceptional recent performance of the United States is certainly impressive and a major driver of global growth, but it reflects strong demand factors as well, including a fiscal stance that is out of line with long-term fiscal sustainability,” the IMF wrote in its latest World Economic Outlook. “This raises short-term risks to the disinflation process, as well as longer-term fiscal and financial stability risks for the global economy since it risks...

Tesla is laying off more than 10% of its global workforce, equivalent to at least 14,000 roles, as the electric carmaker reacts to slowing demand and pressure on prices. The chief executive, Elon Musk, announced “the difficult decision” in a memo first reported by the online publication Elektrek. Tesla employs 140,473 people, according to its annual report.

Business activity continued to decline in New York State, according to firms responding to the April 2024 Empire State Manufacturing Survey. The headline general business conditions index rose seven points but remained below zero at -14.3. New orders and shipments both declined significantly, and unfilled orders continued to shrink. Delivery times shortened, and inventories edged higher. Labor market conditions remained weak, with employment and hours worked moving lower. The pace of input price increases picked up somewhat, while the pace of selling price increases held steady. Though firms expect conditions to improve over the next six months, optimism remained subdued.

Layoffs continue across the freight and logistics industry, with companies in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan and Texas announcing job reductions and facility closures over the past two weeks. Universal Logistics Warren, Michigian-based Universal Logistics is permanently shuttering two of its subsidiaries and laying off a total of 677 employees, according to notices recently filed with the state. The layoffs are related to Universal-operated entities Logistics Insights Corp. and Universal Dedicated of Detroit, an auto parts warehousing and logistics facility. Both operations were in Detroit. Universal Dedicated of Detroit’s closure will affect 230 truck drivers who worked from the facility. Logistics...

America’s largest water district says declining revenues due to increased water conservation are forcing the agency to significantly raise water rates to remain solvent. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which supplies water for 19 million Americans, is raising its rates 8.5% in 2025 and another 8.5% over baseline levels in 2026. The district’s projections include raising rates an additional 11.5% in 2027 and another 11.5% in 2028 to finance an $8.2 billion water recycling plant that could provide enough annual water for 1.5 million people.

Between earthquakes popping up in unusual places, murder hornets making a brief debut a couple years ago (remember those?) and the price of a Trader Joe’s banana rising for the first time in decades, the world seems to be increasingly unpredictable. Much like a Mentos mint popped into a Coke bottle, the pressure is bubbling and potentially set to burst. But the prime fear among doomsday preppers is less out-of-this-world, like an alien invasion or zombie apocalypse; rather, it takes place on Wall Street’s doorstep. A third (33%) of Americans fear the end of the U.S. will be the result...

Joe Biden, his Administration, and The Federal Reserve are really “The Alligator People.” Despite what they tell you, they have small brains (particularly Biden) and are hyperfocused on spending. A good example comes from “Wall Street On Parade” where they show that The Federal Reserve is still paying BILLIONS to US Treasury in the form of remittances (losses). While at the same time, paying the mega banks on Wall Street high interest loans. As of April 3 of this year, the Federal Reserve (Fed) has racked up $161 billion in accumulated losses. We’re not talking about unrealized losses on the...

We are in an election year. President Biden, a seasoned politician, has failed miserably in tackling inflation and is now attempting to shift blame for "Bidenflation" onto Trump, a move even noted by The New York Times, which dubbed it Biden's Plan B. Commenting on the latest CPI release, President Biden said: We’re better situated than we were when we took office where we— inflation was skyrocketing. And we have a plan to deal with it, whereas the opposition — my opposition talks about two things. They just want to cut taxes for the wealthy and raise taxes on other...

A recent research paper by four noted economists, including Larry Summers, the former Treasury Secretary under Barack Obama and former Harvard President, discovered that the real inflation rate during the Biden years, using pre-1983 calculations reached 18% in 2022. The number is the highest inflation rate the country has seen in over 50 years. This research project was published by these four authors at the nonpartisan National Bureau of Economic Research in late February and is just now making waves. Marijn A. Bolhuis is an economist in the Macro Policy division of the International Monetary Fund’s Strategy, Policy, and Review...

The New York Times economics parody writer Pauk Krugman — because that’s all he’s been reduced to now — can’t seem to avoid sleepwalking his way into huge, unforced errors. In another Apr. 9 column praising President Joe Biden’s alleged “Goldilocks” economy, Krugman was adamant that “while there was a wave of inflation, it seems to have broken.” Yes, Krugman wrote this just a day before the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its Apr. 10 report showing that consumer prices spiked hotter than expected at 3.5 percent year-over-year and 0.4 percent month-over-month. CNBC analyzed that core consumer prices (excluding food...

On Wednesday, the government put out disappointing inflation statistics that show that inflation has accelerated to four-tenths of a percent last month. But that number seems unrealistically low to me. In the numbers, bureaucrats claimed that gasoline prices only went up 1.7% last month, which would be only five cents per gallon. On the New York mercantile exchange, gasoline has risen from around $2.10 per gallon in early January to around $2.75 on March 31st; that is up 30% in three months. Crude oil has risen from around $72 at the end of the year, to $83 at the end...

Reporting from Western New York: gas price at my local gas station jumped $0.13 in the last 24 hours. I've never seen a hike that fast. Is anyone else seeing the same thing? I already see gold prices shooting up. Is this gas price? Starting to catch up to it now?

Shut out the Democrat noise and stop believing the mainstream media narrative. Multiple polls and data sets have emphasized that abortion is not one of the top issues for most voters in the upcoming 2024 election, not by a long shot. Democrats are distracting from other issues by going hysterical about abortion. The Democrats have so successfully screeched their heads off about abortion that even many Republicans now think that a significant percentage of voters will have abortion at the forefront of their minds in November. This is simply not true. Not only is there absolutely no moral justification for...

Delinquency rates among American credit card holders are at an all-time high, while at the same time a record number of “active accounts” have “a balance of over $2,000,” according to a Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia report. We’re more than three years into the Biden presidency, so we all know where the blame lies. More from Bloomberg: Almost 3.5% of card balances were at least 30 days past due as of the end of December, the Philadelphia Fed said. That’s the highest figure in the data series going back to 2012, and up by about 30 basis points from...

“The office district is empty, with boarded up towers, copper thieves, and failing retail,” reports the Wall Street Journal of Democrat-run St. Louis, Missouri. “[E]ven the Panera outlet shut down. The city is desperately trying to reverse the ‘doom loop.’” Let’s look at the mayoral history of the doom-looping St. Louis, shall we? Oh, look, there hasn’t been a Republican mayor in St. Louis since — not a typo — 1949. For 75 years, the people of St. Louis have voted for More of the Same, so excuse me if I don’t whip out a violin over all this unavoidable...

Influential investor says US inflation and growth are not at levels where interest rates can fall Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour. https://www.ft.com/content/680c17d1-0d55-4697-aff8-7dcca8c06679?accessToken=zwAGFb2KHEZYkc9oDBfRDVVGl9Ov-H3MqMBmeQ.MEUCIEKUOo8tpYNQH1TIRs1UXW0onmSrH2MkZ28gZyBrU5T-AiEAledOG31n_SXP-FsEVXres7m4-IDthSiN4Xyky3Mv9yQ&sharetype=gift&token=c10df47e-f8fc-4ea2-a059-1720789b4224 Persistent inflation and hot US growth have left the Federal Reserve’s rate-cutting hopes “off track”, Bridgewater’s Bob Prince said on Tuesday, adding...

Funky cold Joe Biden is his reaction to inflation caused by his outragous spending. His legion of sycophants are now saying inflation is a good thing or don’t notice it. But Biden will never stop spending . Coming into today’s CPI number, which followed three previous red-hot inflation prints, we said that it’s time for a “miss” (the first of 2024) not because the data demands it – on the contrary, prices continue to rise at a frightening pace – but because a dovish CPI print today would be the last opportunity for the Fed to set a timetable for...

Economic data across multiple metrics is coming in hot, showing the strength of the U.S. economy and the persistence of inflation in the last mile of its descent down to the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2 percent. A March uptick in the consumer price index (CPI) to an annual 3.5-percent increase could push interest rate cuts back from their predicted start date in June. The CME FedWatch forecasting algorithm put the probability of a June cut at just 21 percent Wednesday morning. The algorithm has higher odds for a cut than a pause at the rate’s current range of...

Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, issued a sober warning for the U.S. economy in his annual letter to investors this week. Dimon pointed to wars breaking out in Europe, the Middle East, and growing tensions with China as major drivers to economic uncertainty which have helped fuel “higher energy and food prices, inflation rates and volatile markets.” The crises on the foreign policy front are largely a reflection of President Joe Biden’s weakness on the world stage as America’s adversaries have felt that they have more latitude in what they are able to get away with under the...

President Biden was at it again Tuesday, telling tall tales and shouting gibberish. He was speaking at Union Station in Washington, D.C. on the care economy—described by the United Nations as including “paid (employed in the formal and informal sectors) and unpaid work through which care is provided for others”—when he was interrupted by a heckler. The president angrily responded, “Well, I’ll tell you what…you wanna come make a speech or shush up, okay?” Then he took a look at the protester and thought better of it because, evidently, the guy looked tough. “I’m not messing around with him!” Biden...