Tag Archives: economy

The New York Post reports: The US economy added 661,000 jobs in September as the American labor market’s rebound from the coronavirus pandemic hit yet another snag, new data show. Last month’s growth in non-farm payrolls helped push the unemployment rate down to 7.9 percent but marked a continued slowdown in hiring from August’s addition of about 1.5 million jobs, …

The Associated Press reports: The worldwide death toll from the coronavirus eclipsed 1 million on Tuesday, nine months into a crisis that has devastated the global economy, tested world leaders’ resolve, pitted science against politics and forced multitudes to change the way they live, learn and work. The bleak milestone, recorded by Johns Hopkins University, is greater than the population …

The Wall Street Journal reports: U.S. debt has reached its highest level compared to the size of the economy since World War II and is projected to exceed it next year, the result of a giant fiscal response to the coronavirus pandemic. The Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday that federal debt held by the public is projected to reach or …

Yahoo Money reports:  The number of individuals filing new unemployment insurance claims improved to a fresh pandemic-era low last week, falling below the 1 million mark for the first time since March. Thursday’s report ended what had been a previous 20-week streak that new claims totaled more than 1 million, with tens of millions of Americans put out of work …

Sen. Bernie Sanders writes for The Guardian: As a nation, the time is long overdue for us to finally address the grotesque level of income and wealth inequality that exists. In my view, we can no longer tolerate the three wealthiest people in America owning more wealth than the bottom 50%, the top 1% owning more wealth than the bottom …

Bloomberg News reports: Renters across America are wading into unknown territory. With the lapse of the federal moratorium on evictions that expired July 31 and the end of the $600 per week boost to unemployment benefits, a recent survey reveals the breadth of financial uncertainty now plaguing Americans. An estimated 27% of adults in the U.S. missed their rent or …

Yahoo Finance reports: The number of new unemployment insurance claims improved last week to a pandemic-era low but held above 1 million yet again, as the coronavirus outbreak continues to weigh on the pace of recovery in the labor market. Thursday’s report reflected the twentieth straight week that new claims topped 1 million, as the pandemic forced furloughs and layoffs …

NBC News reports: More than 1.43 million people filed for unemployment benefits for the first time last week, according to new weekly data from the Department of Labor. It’s the second-straight week that the number has risen, and the 19th week in a row that the U.S. has seen more than a million claims. For context, the prior peak was …

The New York Times reports: Joseph R. Biden Jr. will lay out a populist economic vision to revive and reinvest in American manufacturing on Thursday, calling for major new spending and stricter new rules to “Buy American” as part of an effort to more aggressively challenge President Trump on two of his signature issues: the economy and nationalism. In a …

Business Insider reports: US weekly jobless claims totaled 1.3 million in the week that ended Saturday, the Labor Department said Thursday. That came in lower than the consensus economist estimate of 1.38 million compiled by Bloomberg. In just a few months, the roughly 50 million unemployment claims filed during the coronavirus pandemic have far surpassed the roughly 37 million during …

The Hill reports: A federal mandate to wear masks would slow the spread of the coronavirus enough to save the economy from losing 5 percent of its value, according to a Goldman Sachs study. “We argue that a national face mask mandate could partially substitute for renewed lockdowns,” Goldman Sachs analysts Jann Hatzius, Daan Struyven, and Isabella Rosenberg wrote in …

The Associated Press reports: The U.S. economy entered a recession in February, a group of economists declared Monday, ending the longest expansion on record. The economists said employment peaked in February and fell sharply afterward, marking the beginning of the downturn. The economists make up a committee within the National Bureau of Economic Research, a trade group that determines when …

The Guardian reports: Another 1.9 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week as the total number of claims passed 42 million since the coronavirus pandemic hit the US. The pace of layoffs has slowed dramatically from its peak of 6.6M at the start of April as states start to relax quarantine orders and last week was the ninth consecutive …

CNBC reports: First-time filings for unemployment insurance totaled 2.44 million last week as the tail effects of the coronavirus shutdown continued to impact the U.S. jobs market. The total, while still well above anything the nation had seen in pre-coronavirus America, represents the seventh straight week of a declining pace following the record peak of 6.9 million in late March. …

The Hill reports: Stephen Moore, a member of the White House coronavirus economic task force, said he thinks the “worst economic news” has passed and urged Democratic governors and mayors to expedite the reopening of their respective states and cities amid the pandemic. “The problem is we still have New York. And we have California. And we have Michigan and …

CNN reports: How bad is the coronavirus economy? The worst ever, says Fed Chairman Jerome Powell. “We are going to see economic data for the second quarter that is worse than any data we have seen for the economy,” Powell said. “There are direct consequences of the disease and measures we are taking to protect ourselves from it.” The recovery …

MarketWatch reports: The collapse in the U.S. economy caused by the coronavirus pandemic triggered the biggest drop in gross domestic product in the first quarter since 2008 in a prelude to an even more massive decline in the spring. GDP, the official scorecard for economic growth, shrank at a 4.8% annualized pace. GDP, the official scorecard for the economy, shrank …

CBS News reports: Most Americans said they do not expect it will be safe to have social gatherings until at least June, according to a new poll. Sixty-five percent of Americans said they expect the coronavirus pandemic to be controlled enough to allow for gatherings of more than 10 people by the end of June or later, according to a …

The Washington Post reports: The White House released new guidance late Thursday afternoon for states to reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic, leaving the decisions up to governors to make on a statewide or county-by-county level. The guidance, which will be formally announced during a 6 p.m. news conference, doesn’t lay out a specific timeline for relaxing social distancing restrictions. It …

CNN Business reports: Dan Salaja was a teenager with a new license last time he remembers gas selling for less than a dollar a few decades ago. “If I was a betting man, I would have bet a large amount of money we’d never see gas for less than a dollar again,” said the manager of Casey’s General Store in …