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The United States on Thursday announced a huge $2.5 billion weapons package for Ukraine, including 90 Stryker combat vehicles, the first time Washington has committed the system to Kyiv. The new lethal assistance — announced a day ahead of a gathering of top Western military officials for the Ukraine Contact Group in Germany — includes hundreds of armored vehicles, thousands of artillery rounds and new Avenger air defense systems pulled from U.S. weapons stockpiles.

Consumer spending slowed and household finances weakened across all income levels last month. But households earning $100,000 a year or more reported shaving more off their spending than less well-off households did, according to a report released this week by Morning Consult, a decision intelligence company. The report also found that real monthly spending among U.S. adults fell by 4.3% from November to December. Even so, 21.3% of U.S. adults said their monthly expenses exceeded their monthly income in December, up from 19.2% in November. On average, households earning $100,000 a year or more said they spent about 10% less...

“I suspect that you will continue to hear coming from the United States additional packages of security assistance, additional weapons and capabilities for Ukraine – perhaps as soon as the end of this week,” White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told CNN.Kirby didn’t elaborate on the contents of the package but said that the U.S. was concentrated “on trying to make sure that we are giving Ukraine what they need in the fight that they’re in.”“We’re gonna continue to modulate these packages so that they’re most appropriate for what Ukraine need

The Biden administration is preparing to announce a roughly $2.5 billion military aid package for Ukraine that is expected to include dozens of Bradley and Stryker armored vehicles, according to two people familiar with the decision, as the Pentagon intensifies its support ahead of an expected counteroffensive against entrenched Russian forces. The war has entered a phase, U.S. officials have said, that will require Ukrainian units to attack enemy forces in a concerted way, using tanks, armored vehicles, artillery and aviation in what is known as combined arms warfare. Bradleys and Strykers would significantly bolster their firepower and allow soldiers...

Spending at retail stores fell in December by the most in a year as consumer demand cools in the face of stubbornly high inflation and rising interest rates. Retail sales, a measure of how much consumers spent on a number of everyday goods, including cars, food and gasoline, declined 1.1% in December, the Commerce Department said Thursday. Economists surveyed by Refinitiv expected sales to fall 0.8%.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics last week confirmed what everyday Americans who shopped over the holiday season already know: Historic inflation continues unabated, eroding Americans’ real wages and living standards. Overall inflation over the past 12 months — the calendar year of 2022 — increased by 6.5 percent, far exceeding average wage growth, and core inflation actually rose last month. Services prices grew at their fastest rate in 40 years. Yet you wouldn’t know it from President Biden’s celebratory remarks following the release of these numbers. Biden took credit for the slight moderation in topline inflation that remains more than...

In France strike plans forming for Thursday in opposition to "pension reform" planned by President Emmanuel Macron... In Ukraine tonight a US delegation has arrived led by Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman... Meanwhile the International Atomic Energy Agency has established a permanent presence at the "South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant"... US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is to travel to China next month... Protests in Peru continue opposition to the ouster of Leftist President Pedro Castillo... Monday night in Germany means protest walks... Israeli Politics: Massive Opposition Protests And Calls For "Compromise Talks" On Judicial Reform... US politics and...

Gov. Kathy Hochul, after crawling to a first formal term, announced a plan so brilliant that it could have only come from Elizabeth Warren or a drunken Marxist. And I don’t mean Groucho.“Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday used her second State of the State address to unveil a wide-ranging agenda for 2023, vowing to tie New York’s minimum wage to the rate of inflation”Brilliant plan.Then every time the cost of goods and services rises, so will wages, which will increase costs and lead to a rise in the cost of goods and services, which will increase wages which will increase...

During an interview with NPR aired on Friday’s “Morning Edition,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen argued that inflation has been “quite low for the last six months or so,” but she wants to see “inflation come down to much lower levels” over the next year. Yellen said, “Inflation has really been quite moderate, quite low for the last six months or so, importantly, because of lower energy prices. We continue to see improvement in supply chains. Goods prices have actually been falling. And some of the supply chain issues that pushed up the prices of goods and commodities, those have really...

Since the inflation debate began raising toward the “end” of the pandemic, I have made the case that inflation, as the Federal Reserve first suggested, would be transitory. Transitory never was intended to suggest that a burst of inflation would last only a couple months. Historically, notwithstanding the 1970s and ’80s, post war/pandemic inflations lasted a couple years before turning substantially lower and sometimes careening back into a bout of deflation. There is a gathering amount of data to support that position despite the Fed, and many other economists, persistently worrying about an emergent wage/price spiral instead. The data, to...

Its that time again when Congress does its Kabuki Theater drama about raising the US debt limit. Of course, everyone in Congress and the Biden Administration want to spend trillions of dollars so they will hike the debt limit. With the US government facing the danger of a payments default later this year, Congress has a variety of paths to avert economic disaster and boost the debt ceiling. All of them would likely involve going right up to the market-rattling brink, according to current and former lawmakers and aides. The timeline kicks off within weeks, when Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen...

President Joe Biden touted falling food prices Thursday, but the latest federal data shows the price of food is actually on the rise and has been for more than a year. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released new inflation data Thursday that showed the overall consumer pr

Some employers look to hire and continually turn over junior employees – sometimes harming young workers’ careers before they’ve even begun. Experts say there are many employers that specifically hire new graduates looking to pursue their passions – often in competitive, even ‘glamourous’ careers. In some cases, this can be great for these workers, who are looking for a way into an industry of their dreams. Sometimes, however, young employees can get ground down in low-paying, demanding roles, as employers know that vacancies will always be hotly desired. These situations can leave early-career workers, hoping to establish themselves, making them...

The people who have created American misery are the same people in charge of solving it. That’s going to go well. ... Arecession is coming in 2023, concluded more than two-thirds of the economists at big financial institutions recently surveyed by The Wall Street Journal. Inflation is also likely to remain high. Measuring year-over-year inflation by the U.S. government’s 1980s methodology put it at 15.23 percent in November 2022 instead of the government’s claimed 7.11 percent, according to economist John Williams. Many commentators, including me, were wrong when we previously claimed our grandkids will be paying off America’s massively unaffordable...

Well over one-third of Europeans have been left struggling to pay their bill amid the ongoing cost inflation crisis, a government survey has revealed. A survey conducted on behalf of the European Union has found that well over one-third of Europeans have at one point struggled to pay their bills in the year prior to the poll taking place. Although unseasonably warm weather on the continent has meant that the bloc has largely avoided major power shortages, huge numbers of EU citizens have nevertheless struggled to deal with the heightened price of food, fuel and services caused by the ongoing...

As The Federal Reserves attempts to combat inflation, the withdrawal of monetary stimulus is creating problems in the housing market. For one, as mortgage rates have risen, newly listed homes declined -21% YoY in December. And yes, the 2022 vintage is the worst in 6 years as The Fed counterattacks inflation. And mortgage rates rose to over 7% before calming down to around 6.50%.

I don’t think this is a record that Biden can run on for re-election: 21 straight months of NEGATIVE REAL WAGE GRWOTH. Fortunately for Fed Chair Jay Powell, he is not an elected official. The December inflation report still shows elevated inflation in the US, but only -0.1% since November (MoM), but still high compared to last year (6.5% YoY). That is still over 3x The Fed’s target inflation rate of 2%. While headline inflation fell to 0.1% MoM, CORE inflation (removing food and energy) rose again 0.3% MoM and 5.7% YoY. At 6.50% YoY headline inflation, the Taylor Rule...

Peter Schiff warns about the biggest crisis in more than a decade, worse than 2008. He elaborates on skyrocketing inflation and explains how to protect yourself during these times. Peter D. Schiff is an economist, stock broker, financial specialist, host of the Peter Schiff Show Podcast, and author. He is the CEO and chief global strategist of Euro Pacific Capital Inc. Mr. Schiff has also written a number of books on investing over the years. He educates people all over the world about free market economics and the principles and benefits of individual liberty, limited government and sound money.

The federal government is closing in on the $31.4 trillion borrowing limit, meaning a high-stakes fight over raising the debt ceiling is fast approaching. An estimate from the Peter G. Peterson Foundation places the nation’s debt at $31.39 trillion and counting on Wednesday, just a hair below the limit set more than a year ago. That doesn’t mean the debt ceiling will have to be lifted this week — or even this month. The Treasury Department can generally use what are known as extraordinary measures to put off an actual debt crisis. But it’s clear the fight is edging closer,...

LONDON (AP) — Climate change is the global economy’s biggest long-term challenge but one the world is least prepared to tackle because of short-term problems led by a cost-of-living crisis, the World Economic Forum said in a report Wednesday. The group’s Global Risks Report, released ahead of its annual gathering of government leaders and business elites next week in the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos, offers a bleak outlook. The report based on a survey of 1,200 risk experts, industry bosses and policymakers says the biggest challenges over the next decade involve the environment, yet more immediate challenges are distracting...