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The costs of goods and services rose more than expected in October, according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report published Tuesday by the Labor Department. The headline CPI rose 0.4 percent month-over-month, more than the 0.3 percent expected by economists. Core CPI, excluding food and energy, rose 0.3 percent for the third consecutive month. The report comes as the Federal Reserve considers its next interest-rate move. Speaking Tuesday morning ahead of the CPI release, Fed Governor Christopher Waller said a hot inflation reading could push him toward advocating for a half-point increase in December. Analysts now expect at least...

Americans have handed the new Congress its marching orders: Tackle the affordability crisis that’s keeping so many young people locked out of the housing market. Housing affordability was one of several key themes that resonated with voters from South Carolina and Ohio to Texas, Montana, and beyond, helping more than 40 Democrats to flip seats in both the Senate and House of Representatives during last week’s midterm elections... Earlier this year, the National Association of Realtors reported that the typical first-time homebuyer is now 40 years old, a record high and a sharp increase from even five years ago, when...

Just a generation or two ago, Americans believed that if you worked hard, saved your money, behaved responsibly, and avoided doing something incredibly stupid or going to jail, you might eventually be able to buy a house. After the Second World War, millions of relatively affordable houses went up across America, helped by suburban expansion, automobiles, and eventually the Interstate Highway System. For many boomers, the life they knew included one working parent, larger families, stronger communities, widely available public education, safe neighborhoods, and a decent house in which to raise a family. The middle class was like a vast...

U.S. — Democrats proudly announced that they had already delivered on their campaign promise to improve affordability, having made stock prices far, far cheaper in just a few days. Only two days after the midterms, Democrats had succeeded in reducing the total cost of stocks by historic amounts, making good on their vows. "This is what it looks like to deliver for the American people," said Representative Hakeem Jeffries, holding up a chart to show how much cheaper stocks are now. "In just 48 hours, we managed to cut the price of stocks by a collective $2.9 trillion. If we...

American Revolution 2.0Have you already seen how far the country has been pulled off course?Are You Counting the Days Until the Election?A nation in decline does not correct itself by accident. What you are reading is the product of years of quiet work by people who refused to stay inside the stable of group-think: researchers, memers, prayer warriors, and ordinary citizens who left the old media matrix, compared notes, and kept a watch. Five hundred threads ago many of us were still alone, ranging from half-asleep to already on duty. Small enclaves formed, drops were read for clues, and a...

Both parties agreed on this tumultuous midterm election’s essential point. President Trump wanted voters to “pretend I’m on the ballot.” With his approval at 38%, Democrats happily agreed. The results were catastrophic for Republicans. They lost almost everywhere, including places where defeat was once unimaginable. Republicans dropped from 53 in the Senate to no more than 46, with losses in Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas as well as Georgia, North Carolina and Maine. In the House, Democrats are expected to have around 258 seats, a pickup of at least 43. Many Republicans in supposedly safe districts narrowly escaped...

I have always had mixed feelings about Trump's tariff agenda, and here's why. On economic grounds, tariffs are a terrible idea, but Trump had a point about many of the trade deals in place, which were often built around bribing allies into supporting us politically (or sometimes helping countries that struggle economically). Trump's agenda to renegotiate trade deals had some merit. Exit polling on tariffs. The GOP has opposed global tariffs since WW2 and for good reason. It’s bad economics and bad politics. Article One gave tariff power to Congress and we must reclaim it. I got this from Erick...

Outgoing Florida Governor and former 2024 presidential contender Ron DeSantis has taken a swipe at Donald Trump after the Republican defeat in the midterm elections. DeSantis called it 'close to an extinction-level event for Republicans in many parts of the country' and singled out the Democratic wins in the Texas governor and Senate races in what he called 'the crown jewel of Republican politics.' 'Let's just be clear, that is going to hurt, not just for the next two years, that's something that can reverberate for the next decade or more,' he said at a press conference in Tallahassee on...

2026 Midterm elections: Most Important IssueSource: CBS News November 3–4, 2026 Economy 39%State of Democracy 32%Immigration 14%Health Care 8%Foreign Policy 4%Key Takeaway: The economy ranks first at 39%, followed by the state of democracy at 32%. Together, these two issues account for 71% of respondents. TARRIFS?AP Voter Poll: The economy and the state of democracy are voters' top issues By — Associated Press. — Published on Nov 3, 2026 Most voters believe Trump's policies have harmed the U.S. economy Relatively few voters have positive things to say about Trump's economic leadership. About two-thirds of U.S. midterm voters say Trump's policies...

Democrats promise to lower costs, but journalists rarely ask them to explain their policies—or account for the soaring prices under Biden. Two things are missing from almost every media report attacking President Trump over affordability: acknowledgment that Democrats supported Biden’s policies during the inflation surge, which left Americans paying substantially higher prices, and any serious examination of which Democrat policies would actually make life more affordable. If Democrats regain power, their policies could make things worse. According to a recent article, House Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries promises to lower grocery, gasoline, housing, and health care costs. “We are explicitly promising...

The American economy is showing remarkable resilience despite persistent inflation, high interest rates, and geopolitical uncertainty. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta estimates that the economy grew at a 3.5% annualized rate during the third quarter of 2026, well above what many economists once considered sustainable. Yet there is a growing disconnect between the economy’s impressive performance and the financial reality facing everyday Americans. Economic Growth Continues to Beat ExpectationsEconomists had expected the U.S. economy to slow as higher energy prices, tariffs, and rising borrowing costs weighed on consumers and businesses. Instead, consumer spending has remained resilient, companies have continued...

During the run-up to elections, I like to look a little deeper into the trends that seem to be driving people to the polls. For the 2026 midterms, we're told that the main issue is "affordability." I don't disagree. I live in a deep blue region of a blue state: New Jersey. My particular county (Camden) has been under total Democrat control for a very long time. The state itself has been under Democrat legislative control since 2001, with the governor's mansion also occupied by Democrats except during a hiatus when Republican-in-name-only Chris Christie held the office from 2009-2017. So...

Wages in construction are rising as the nation’s labor market recovers from the flood of cheap and subsidized migrant labor imported by pro-migration policies before 2024, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The recovery — caused by President Donald Trump’s 2024 deportation mandate — is especially rapid in Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has used state police to deliver many illegal migrants to the federal deportation officers. American construction workers in Florida who build the wooden frames for housing can now charge roughly $42 per hour, up from $20 per hour, Scott Brannock, president of Jacksonville-based Tidewater Homes...

Some Americans are crying poverty with a $1,500 iPhone in one hand and an $8 Starbucks latte in the other. They say groceries are unaffordable, but somehow the restaurants are packed, airports are crowded, and the neighbor just pulled into his driveway with a brand-new $90,000 SUV. Apparently, we're one bad economic report away from bankruptcy and one Instagram post away from booking another trip to Cabo. Consumer confidence is in the basement. Consumer spending apparently didn't get the memo. In September, the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index fell to 81.9. Yet it has been reported that consumer credit and...

FIRST ON FOX: A new White House economic report warns that immigration policies backed by the Democratic Socialists of America could cost American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade, as the Trump administration sounds the alarm over the potential financial consequences of mass amnesty and expanded federal benefits. As President Donald Trump touts 16 consecutive months without illegal immigrant releases at the southern border, a Council of Economic Advisers report estimates that mass amnesty and expanded federal benefits under Democratic Socialists of America-backed immigration policies could cost taxpayers between $440 billion and $613 billion over the...

I love this. I hate that. Really? Is it necessary to exaggerate? If everything is huge or outrageous or unprecedented, then how will we express things that are truly out of the ordinary? Florid language is the enemy of clear, concise speech. Like putting exclamation points and emojis after every sentence, it pervades modern media and makes everyone sound like adolescent twits. I don't dislike the following expressions, nor do I hate them. I detest them with a burning rage that disrupts the very fabric of space and time. - Amazing/Amazed: People say this when they really like something, but...

"Affordability" is one of those words that gets thrown around a lot without being well-defined, but we all have a general idea of what it means. Every election year, the economy, and by extension affordability, is always at the top of voters' concerns. Most years it is #1, and it is always in the top three, and for good reason: when we think of the "American Dream," we most often think of an ever-rising standard of living for families and their children. As Reagan put it succinctly, "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?"Many government policies...

The cost of the American dream is rising at a faster pace than household earnings, driven by notable increases in the cost of homeownership, raising children and paying for college, according to a new report. An analysis by Investopedia finds that the lifetime cost of the American dream rose 4.1% from 2025 to 2026, with the cost increasing by more than $208,000 from $5.11 million a year ago to $5.32 million this year. That cost has risen faster than wages and salaries, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics data for private sector wages and salaries in the past 12 months...

We are now less than a month out from the mid-term elections, and the single biggest theme that the Democrats have chosen to run on appears to be “affordability.” How can this possibly be? We live in the age of immediate availability of information, let alone artificial intelligence to track down anything that might previously have been challenging to find. If you want a state-by-state comparison of costs for any particular thing, you can get it in a fraction of a second. The results are in: the Democrat-run states are less “affordable.” The Democrats and Republicans propose opposite strategies for...

If you want to understand what’s shaping the midterm elections in November, start with voters age 50 and older. They are highly motivated, they make up a substantial share of the country’s swing vote, and they are focused on issues that affect their everyday lives, like affordability and Social Security. There’s no better state that exemplifies this than Alaska, where one of the most compelling Senate races is taking shape in the battle for control of the Senate. AARP’s new bipartisan poll of likely Alaska voters found that 87 percent of voters 50 and older rate themselves a “10” on...