The State of the Economy Thread - “Falling inflation, rising growth give U.S. the world’s best recovery”

[Cooked Crack]

 

[China]

Americans say the economy stinks. But they’re spending like it’s great

 

There’s a conundrum that economists and political strategists have been chewing on for more than a year: The economy is good, but Americans say it’s lousy.

 

Despite all kinds of positive news on inflation (it’s slowing), the job market (best in a generation) and consumer spending (still robust!), Americans can’t seem to shake their despair, at least whenever they answer calls from pollsters.

 

In a CNN poll released Tuesday night, 72% of all Americans say things in the country today are going badly, and 66% said the economy will be “extremely important” when deciding who to vote for next year.

 

But just 2% of voters say the economy is excellent, according to a separate New York Times-Siena College poll released earlier this week. That could be a big problem for Democrats trying to peddle Bidenomics. (although Democrats put up a pretty strong showing in Tuesday’s elections.)

 

But there’s a conundrum within the conundrum, which is that, despite what Americans say, they are not behaving like a people particularly worried about the economy.

 

Folks don’t tend to shell out thousands on Taylor Swift tickets and steak dinners and vacations when they’re worried about where their next paycheck is coming from. But that is exactly what we the people have been doing, month after month, even in the face of higher borrowing rates.

 

Consumer spending, the biggest engine of the US economy, powered US gross domestic product to grow at a stunning annualized rate of nearly 5% last quarter — more than double the quarter before that.

 

Of course, to pay for it all, Americans are dipping into some dangerous places — something you don’t typically do unless 1) you’re desperate, or 2) the labor market is booming and you feel like your job is secure.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Captain Wiggles]

Americans are taking money out of their 401ks to pay for Taylor Swift tickets, steak dinners, and vacations. 🤣

 

[TradeTheBeal!]

Don’t have to worry about Phish fans doing that cause, cmon…those corny hippies have never even heard of a 401K.  Plus, you can’t retire if you’ve never really had a job, can you?

[Captain Wiggles]

Hey slinging grilled cheese and Sammy Smiths to custys like @TradeTheBeal! on lot is most certainly a job. 🤣

[TradeTheBeal!]

3 minutes ago, Captain Wiggles said:

Hey slinging grilled cheese and Sammy Smiths to custys like @TradeTheBeal! on lot is most certainly a job. 🤣

No, it’s not.

[Captain Wiggles]

Self employed hippie lives matter braj. 🤭

[skinsmarydu]

It's always good to be reminded that I'm worthless. 

[Sacks 'n' Stuff]

23 minutes ago, skinsmarydu said:

It's always good to be reminded that I'm worthless. 

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[Fan since a Fetus]

23 hours ago, TradeTheBeal! said:

Don’t have to worry about Phish fans doing that cause, cmon…those corny hippies have never even heard of a 401K.  Plus, you can’t retire if you’ve never really had a job, can you?

Sorry, but I’m sure one of them somewhere has a 401k bundle of weed. To translate for you stoopid Americans, that’s about 880 lbs of weed.

[Fan since a Fetus]

21 hours ago, skinsmarydu said:

It's always good to be reminded that I'm worthless. 

You’re not worthless. Don’t listen to people. I used to all the time and got me nowhere. Now, I just don’t care. If it weren’t for my wife I’d be dead or homeless. 
 

that’s better than if it weren’t for my horse, I wouldn’t have spent that year in college. So, I’ll take it. I imagine homelessness is less expensive than college which is less expensive than death.

 

although, I am sure some Christians would say that’s not true because we are going to hell to pay for our misdeeds like and listening to the devils music and slappin some fine booty before getting married. Boom chicka wow!!! It’s going to be really really expensive for me if they’re correct, 

[Captain Wiggles]

Don't worry hell is gonna be fun. 👹

 

[China]

The US minimum wage has been $7.25 since 2009. What that means for the economy

 

Ken Rose, a restaurateur and chef in Sandy, said though he has always paid his employees above his state's minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, in the past few years, he's had to bump employee pay higher than ever.

 

"For me, minimum wage is what you can hire an employee for," Rose, who owns contemporary American restaurant Tiburon Fine Dining in Sandy, told CNN. "Seven twenty-five hasn't been relevant for years."

 

An ever-shrinking number of workers in the U.S. are paid the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour — and a growing chorus of unions, economists and even employers agree it's out of step with today's economic reality.

 

Only 141,000 U.S. workers were paid the minimum per hour in 2022, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's down from 392,000 in 2019. And while many states have taken the initiative to increase the minimum wage, 20 U.S. states still only require employers to pay $7.25 an hour — or only $2.13 per hour for workers who collect tips.

 

Overall, the legal pay floor in the U.S. hasn't budged since 2009. It's the longest period without a countrywide increase since the federal minimum wage was established in 1938. Adjusting for inflation, workers paid the legal hourly minimum in the 1960s and 70s were higher paid compared to today, according to the nonprofit think tank, the Economic Policy Institute.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[skinsmarydu]

23 minutes ago, China said:

or only $2.13 per hour for workers who collect tips.

Which is why we have to hustle super hard and be super nice to people who aren't.  

To me, anyway, it's about keeping my station full, keeping a regular clientele, and everybody leaving with a smile on their face.  

 

I've also been known to hold up a ketchup bottle and say, "I'd like to thank the Academy..." 

[The Evil Genius]

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[Fergasun]

@Cooked Crack

She was basically implying through her Tweets that the pandemic and social media sites are driving anger and discontent.  I think primarily pandemic.

[Cooked Crack]

 

[Larry]

"Obviously, we need the government to suppress unions."

 

"Except police and firefighter unions. They donate Republican."

[Larry]

 

 

[China]

October Inflation Report Inflation Moderates as Economy Cools

 

Consumer prices slowed in October.

Inflation eased in October and price increases showed encouraging signs of slowing under the surface, according to fresh data released on Tuesday. The report provides the Federal Reserve with evidence that its battle against rapid inflation is working.

 

The overall Consumer Price Index slowed to 3.2 percent last month on a year-over-year basis, lower than the 3.7 percent reading in September and the coolest since July. That deceleration owed partly to more moderate energy prices.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Riggo-toni]

On 11/13/2023 at 10:10 AM, The Evil Genius said:

 

I call b.s. on those China numbers. China's days of major growth are over.

[China]

14 minutes ago, Riggo-toni said:

I call b.s. on those China numbers. China's days of major growth are over.

 

China’s economy grows 4.9% in Q3, beating expectations but slowing from previous quarter

 

China’s economy slowed in the summer as global demand for its exports faltered and the ailing property sector sank deeper into crisis, the government said Wednesday.

 

The world’s second-largest economy expanded at a 4.9% annual pace in July-September, beating analysts’ forecasts of about 4.5%, official data show. But that was much slower than the 6.3% annual growth rate of the previous quarter.

 

The Chinese government has acted to help the economy with various policies, raising spending on building ports and other infrastructure, cutting interest rates and easing curbs on home-buying. But economists say wider reforms are needed to address long-term problems that are stifling growth.

 

Officials from the National Bureau of Statistics cautioned that global realities were becoming “more complex and grave” and warned that demand from Chinese consumers and businesses is has not bounced back as much as hoped for after the pandemic.

 

Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, said that although the numbers beat expectations China’s economy is “not out of the woods by any means.”

 

“This growth suggests a modest improvement in the Chinese economy. However, there are ongoing calls for increased policy support to maintain consistent growth, as there are concerns about the sustainability of the recovery,” Innes said in a note.

 

On a quarterly basis, the economy grew by 1.3% in the third quarter, compared to the 0.8% growth seen in the April-to-June quarter.

 

The drop in growth also reflected base effects, given that in April-June of 2022 China was enduring the worst of its stringent anti-virus shutdowns, and that exaggerated the pace of growth in the last quarter, Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics said in a report.

 

Still, he noted that Capital Economics’ gauge of business activity showed growth slowing in July-September, though there were signs of improvement, mainly driven by consumer spending.

 

For the first nine months of the year, China’s economy grew 5.2% compared to the same period last year, suggesting it is on track with Beijing’s target of about 5% growth for 2023.

 

Oxford Economics’ China economist Louise Loo said that the third quarter data showed that a “stimulus-led cyclical pickup in China was underway.”

 

Retail sales rose 5.5% in September from a year earlier, beating expectations as consumers splurged ahead of a week-long Golden Week holiday in early October.

 

Industrial output, which measures activity in the manufacturing, mining and utilities sectors, rose 4.5% in September from a year earlier — on par with the month before.

 

Fixed-asset investment — spending on factory equipment, construction and other infrastructure projects to drive growth — still grew only by a tepid 3.1% in the first nine months of the year, compared with January-September 2022.

 

“Property indicators remained very weak in September, with no signs of bottoming out,” said Loo said.

 

She said it would be challenging to maintain momentum in this quarter given weak prospects for a revival in the real estate sector.

 

China’s trade data, released earlier this week, showed that exports and imports continued to decline although they contracted at a slower rate than previously.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Captain Wiggles]

Seen me some $2.99 a gallon gas. Why that's equivalent to that 36 cent a gallon gas from 1970 all them boomer continuously drone on about. 👴🏻