Free Republic

i am trying to get a feel for the USA economy and USA stocks through to nov-dec 2024. what is the best prognosis? and why? what is the worst prognosis? and why? allow me to take a swag at both. the best would be that QE is re-instituted or continued. this however gets into the definition of "best." best in the longer term would involve reducing welfare which we all know is difficult to touch politically. i think we can do at least one more year of federal funding through issuing more debt although the current US govt bonds are...

The Trade Deficit: An Austrian Perspective by Thorsten Polleit The US trade deficit is often viewed with alarm and has attracted considerable attention from both the public at large and policy makers. [1] Much of the uneasiness about the US trade deficit can quite simply be attributed to the term "deficit" itself, which holds with it many underlying negative connotations. However, in answer to these concerns, one may take the perspective, drawing on the theories of Ludwig on Mises and Friedrich August von Hayek from the Austrian School of Economics, that the US trade deficit is merely a reflection of...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. trade deficit narrowed unexpectedly to $55.0 billion in March in the largest monthly drop in over three years, as exports rose to a new record and clothing and other imports from China declined, a U.S. government report showed on Wednesday. The 9.2 percent plunge in the deficit defied Wall Street forecasts. Analysts had expected high oil prices and a flood of clothing from China to push the monthly trade gap to around $61.5 billion, which would have been a new record. The sharp pullback in imports offered further evidence that the economy hit a soft...

Market specialists believe that the reduction of sales in Europe might last for quite a long period of timeThe US government is suffering losses not only in Iraq. Cult American brands such as Marlboro, Coca-Cola, MsDonald's, Ford and others are currently experiencing a decline on the European market, particularly in Germany in France. According to the results of the third quarter of this year, American companies have found themselves in a rather unpleasant situation. Car makers Ford and General Motors (trademarks Opel, SAAB, Cadillac, Chevrolet, etc) have had a mass of layoffs recently at their enterprises in Germany and France....