Economy

Wisconsin’s WHBY reports: The number of farms seeking bankruptcy protection grew 24% over the last year, according to an American Farm Bureau Federation analysis of recent federal court data. The analysis found farm bankruptcies are rising fastest in the Northwest. “We’ve seen low crop prices, low livestock prices for a number of years now,” said chief economist John Newton. “On …

Axios reports: Apple CEO Tim Cook, unveiling a $2.5 billion plan to help alleviate California’s housing availability and affordability crisis, told Axios in an interview that Apple feels “a profound responsibility” to the region where it was born and thrived.  “It’s just unsustainable,” Cook said. “This problem is so big that the public sector cannot do it alone.” Many teachers …

The New York Times reports: The American job market has lost some momentum, but a major auto strike was not enough to knock it off the road in October. Ordinarily, a gain of 128,000 jobs would count as a weak month. But the figure looks stronger accounting for the strike at General Motors, which shaved close to 50,000 workers from …

NPR reports: President Trump is counting on a strong economy to help him win reelection next year. But new numbers from the Commerce Department show the economy lost steam during the summer and early fall. GDP — the broadest measure of economic activity — grew at an annual rate of just 1.9% during the third quarter. That’s a deceleration from …

CNBC reports: The U.S. Treasury on Friday said that the federal deficit for fiscal 2019 was $984 billion, a 26% increase from 2018 but still short of the $1 trillion mark. The gap between revenues and spending was the widest it’s been in seven years. The government said corporate tax revenues totaled $230 billion, up 12%, thanks to a rebound …

USA Today reports: Hiring slowed in September as employers added 136,000 jobs, fueling recession concerns and possibly raising the odds of another Federal Reserve rate cut this month. The unemployment rate fell from 3.7% to 3.5%, a new 50-year low, the Labor Department said Friday. Economists expected 145,000 job gains, according to a Bloomberg survey. Partly offsetting the weak showing: …

Bloomberg reports: A measure of underlying U.S. inflation accelerated by more than forecast to a one-year high in August, signaling inflation was already firming ahead of fresh tariffs on Chinese goods this month that may push prices higher for Americans. The core consumer price index, which excludes food and energy, rose 0.3% from the prior month and was up 2.4% …

The Hill reports: President Trump’s approval rating dropped 6 points in a new poll as Americans voice concerns about the economy. Trump’s approval rating fell to 38 percent after July’s career-high 44 percent approval, based on the ABC News/Washington Post poll released Tuesday. The survey also found that 46 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the economy and …

NPR reports: U.S. employers added 130,000 jobs in August, according to a monthly snapshot from the Labor Department, signaling a slowdown in the pace of job growth. Forecasters surveyed by the Reuters news service had predicted job gains of around 158,000. The unemployment rate held steady at 3.7%. Manufacturers added just 3,000 jobs. The jobs total would have been lower …

The Hill reports: Approximately half of respondents in a new survey who voted for President Trump say they would blame him if the U.S. economy falls into a recession. A Morning Consult poll released Wednesday found that 42 percent of respondents who say they voted for Trump in 2016 would hold him partially responsible for an economic downturn, and another …

From the real estate site Clever: To understand how expensive the American Dream has become — and whether it is still achievable today — we gathered Census data from 1960 to 2017 on home prices, rents, and household income. After adjusting for inflation over time, the future of the American Dream seems rather gloomy: Median home prices increased 121% nationwide …