The Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue is processing donations for a bail fund to bail out black illegal immigrants, according to the fund’s donation website.
The Black Immigrants Bail Fund is a project of the Haitian Bridge Alliance and the African Bureau for Immigration and Social Affairs, and donations are processed by ActBlue, per the donation page.
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by Robert Romano The U.S. economy has been on a rollercoaster ever since the COVID pandemic of 2020, first with high unemployment and near deflationary levels as the global economy was locked down, followed by a deluge of government spending, borrowing and printing almost $7 trillion, followed by inflation…
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Consumers are expected to cut back on discretionary spending this holiday season, hurting retailers, amid persistent inflation and declining savings, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The National Retail Federation anticipates consumer spending to rise around 3% to 4% in November and December, not including inflation, compared to a 5.4% increase that was observed in 2022 and a 5.4% gain in 2021 during the same time frame, according to the WSJ. In an effort to increase sales, many retailers are giving deeper discounts to lure consumers who may be apprehensive about buying products they don’t need, looking to boost their sales on Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the last two weeks of December, when holiday deals typically occur.
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Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives lost steam in 2023 compared to previous years as companies increasingly shift resources due to tightening economic conditions, according to Paradigm Consulting Group. Paradigm designs and helps firms implement DEI programs.
The total percentage of American organizations with a DEI budget dropped 4 percentage points, from 58 percent in 2022 to 54 percent in 2023, while the number of organizations with a DEI strategy fell 9 points in that same time frame, according to a report from consulting firm Paradigm. DEI initiatives in the workplace gained huge traction following the death of George Floyd, which encouraged companies to divert resources to the practice, but now “external forces,” including tightening economic conditions as well as public and judicial pressure, are pushing back on those efforts.
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In fiscal 2022, 28 states didn’t have enough revenue to pay all of their bills, according to the 14th annual Financial State of the States report, published by the Chicago-based nonprofit Truth in Accounting.
The report provides a comprehensive analysis of the fiscal health of all 50 states based on the latest available data from states’ fiscal year 2022 annual comprehensive financial reports.
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As 2023 is winding down to a close, the U.S. trade in goods deficit with the world is down $101 billion for the first nine months of the year to $802 billion, an 11.2 percent decrease so far, with still three months of data left to collect for the year, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Simultaneously, existing home sales measured by the National Association of Realtors are down to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.79 million, a 16.7 percent decrease from its Feb. 2023 level of 4.5 million, and are averaging 4.16 million for the past 12 months. Overall, existing home sales are down the past 12 months by almost 32 percent from their 2021 high of 6.12 million. That’s a lot.
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Applications for mortgages ticked up to a six-week high for the week ending on Nov. 17 in a sign that the housing market might become more accessible to average Americans following rising prices and high mortgage rates, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).
The number of mortgage applications increased by 3% compared to a week earlier when seasonally adjusted, according to a press release from the MBA. The increase in volume follows a decline in the average interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, which fell to 7.41% from 7.61% in the same time period.
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Newly released survey data shows that small businesses are pessimistic about their retail sales going into the holiday season.
The Main Street Merchant Report released Tuesday by Alignable, a network of thousands of small businesses, are not optimistic about their sales for small businesses this weekend.
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A new economic analysis of the U.S. economy projects a recession around the corner.
An international nonprofit, The Conference Board, has released its Leading Economic Indicators report, which projects into the next year for the U.S. economy. That analysis, among other things, projects high inflation, high interest rates and declining consumer spending.
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Thanksgiving dinner shoppers will get a bit of a break in the pocketbook this year.
Illinois shoppers participating in the annual American Farm Bureau Federation’s (AFBF) Thanksgiving Cost Survey reported the average cost of a traditional Thanksgiving meal is down slightly compared to last year.
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Charitable foundations funded by credit card companies and managed by their executives are pouring millions of dollars into liberal advocacy organizations, tax filings show.
The American Express Foundation and the Visa Foundation, philanthropic arms of two of the largest credit card companies in the world, gave grants to several major left-wing groups between 2019 and 2021. Executives from Visa and American Express sit on the boards of their respective foundations, both of which have taken millions from the corporations that established them.
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The commercial real estate sector is facing the possibility of a substantial number of bankruptcies that could ultimately hamper economic recovery and threaten the wounded banking industry, according to experts who spoke to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Overall 30 day+ delinquencies on commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS), meaning the number of borrowers for commercial properties that failed to make a required payment in at least the last 30 days, increased from 2.96 percent from one year ago to 4.63 percent as of October, according to a report from market research group Trepp. The delinquencies are indicative of danger in the commercial real estate sector, as they indicate that many of those could become bankruptcies, threatening an already hurting banking industry and exacerbating any economic downturn, according to experts who spoke to the DCNF.
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After the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ order last week, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced that it scheduled Lease Sale 261 in the Outer Continental Shelf in the Gulf of Mexico for December 20.
In September, a federal judge ruled the Biden administration must go through with offshore lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico by September 27 as originally planned and under original conditions. The Fifth Circuit concurred but amended the ruling, pushing back the lease sale date to November 8.
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On Saturday, X owner Elon Musk announced that he would sue the left-wing publication Media Matters after the group smeared his social media site as anti-Semitic.
As reported by Breitbart, Musk declared in a post on the site, formerly known as Twitter, that “the split second court opens on Monday, X Corp will be filing a thermonuclear lawsuit against Media Matters and ALL those who colluded in this fraudulent attack on our company.”
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Wall Street is moving to buy up U.S. farmland in hopes that it will be a safe bet to hedge against inflation and concerning economic conditions, according to Reuters.
Investment funds have accumulated over a million acres of farmland in the U.S., a small part of the 900 million acres in the U.S. but significant for the market when looking at the pace of acquisitions, according to Reuters. The move from investors is drawing the concern of some, including lawmakers, who see the quick constraint on supply as a barrier for the next generation of farmers who can’t buy at the elevated price.
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The United Auto Workers union members narrowly voted to ratify its contract with General Motors.
GM’s ratification tracker shows workers approving the contract on a 54.7% vote with nearly 36,000 votes in support, an unofficial number. The vote will end one-third of the auto strike that’s lasted about six weeks.
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Both annualized consumer and producer inflation decreased in October from 3.7 percent to 3.2 percent and from 2.2 percent to 1.3 percent, respectively, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, amid a drops in oil prices.
On the consumer side, gasoline prices dropped 5 percent in October and are down 5.3 percent over the past twelve months.
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The price of shelter increased substantially in October despite topline month-to-month inflation remaining flat, dashing many Americans’ dreams of buying a home, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Inflation decelerated to 3.2% in October, down from 3.7% in September, owing to substantial deflation in the price of energy, but the shelter sector individually had prices increase by 5.5% for the year. Since the beginning of 2021, when President Joe Biden first took office, home prices have risen 29%, rents are up 17% and mortgage rates have neared 8%, according to the WSJ.
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One of the U.S.’ top banks will begin massive layoffs on Wednesday in a corporate overhaul as the company seeks to trim its operating expenses to levels more in line with its competitors, according to CNBC.
Citigroup will begin cutting employees on Wednesday, with new terminations continuing to be announced through next week, affecting some chiefs of staff, managing directors and lower-level employees, according to CNBC. Following the initial round of layoffs, more employees in less senior positions are expected to be dismissed in February, with the layoffs being expected to be fully completed by March 2024.
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The influx of migrants across the country’s southern border could cost taxpayers $451 billion, a report released Monday by the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee says.
The fourth report released by the committee says that the tab includes housing, education, property damage done by migrants, law enforcement and health care costs.
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The seasonally adjusted inflation rate for October 2023 remained unchanged from the previous month and sits at 3.2%, according to the Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index Report released Tuesday.
The rate increased by 3.2%, compared to October 2022. In September, inflation was at 3.7% compared to the same time the previous year.
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A manufacturer of luxury electric vehicles (EVs) lost more than $227,000 on each car it sold in the third quarter.
Lucid Motors, headquartered in California, sells four EV models, ranging in price from $74,900 to $249,000, according to its website. The company reported a net loss of $630.9 million in the third quarter, excluding its overhead costs, which comes out to a loss of more than $227,000 on each car it sold, according to its financial filings and The Wall Street Journal’s calculations.
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The “Big Three” — Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis — have had a tough go of things lately. The recently concluded strikes by their employees were perhaps the most visible indication that all is not roses in U.S. Autoland, but there is a larger problem. That problem is summarized by the following headline from the Wall Street Journal: “Automakers Have Big Hopes for EVs; Buyers Aren’t Cooperating.”
The financial results of weak EV sales have been devastating for the Big Three. Ford reported a third-quarter operating loss of $1.3 billion in its EV division. Since it sold 20,962 EVs in the third quarter, the per-unit loss on each of those vehicles is an eye-popping $62,016. Ouch!
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A U.S. media outlet with financial ties to organizations led by members of alleged Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence operations announced it was shutting down on Monday.
The China Project (TCP), a multimedia group renowned for its China reporting, blamed “politically motivated attacks” and “enormous legal costs” for a “funding shortfall” resulting in the company’s decision to close. In 2022, the Daily Caller News Foundation identified numerous organizations headed by members of the CCP or CCP influence operations that had partnered with or financially sponsored the outlet.
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The U.S. government’s debt is projected to pass $50 trillion in a decade, growing $5.2 billion every day, according to an analysis from the Bank of America.
The U.S. public debt currently is more than $33.6 trillion and is expected to reach $54 trillion by 2033 amid “fiscal excess in the 2020s,” Bank of America investment strategist Michael Hartnett said, according to Business Insider.
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The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) has been slammed with comments from supporters and critics of its proposed climate disclosure rule.
The release of the final rule has been continually delayed, but its publication is anticipated in the next few months. Congressional Democrats are urging for it to be done sooner rather than later.
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When radicals used the sad death of fentanyl addict and opioid abuser George Floyd to burn down America’s cities in summer 2020, they earned nothing but praise from many of our country’s biggest corporations.
Overnight, America’s corporate giants became footsoldiers in the Left’s “woke” revolution, tut-tutting their customers’ LGBTQ “microaggressions,” pouring millions of dollars into the Marxist-led Black Lives Matter, and condemning the “systemic racism” of the country that birthed them.
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The U.S. added 150,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in October as the unemployment rate ticked up to 3.9%, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data released Friday.
Economists had anticipated that the country would add 180,000 jobs in October compared to the 336,000 jobs that were added in September and that the unemployment rate would remain at 3.8%, according to Reuters. On Wednesday, at the conclusion of its Federal Open Market Committee meeting, the Federal Reserve announced that it would be keeping its federal funds rate steady in the range of 5.25% and 5.50%, a 22-year high, after a series of 11 rate hikes that started in March 2022 in an effort to tame inflation.
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The Biden administration has revised down previously reported jobs data for nearly every month this year, resulting in a huge disparity from the originally advertised numbers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
The number of jobs added in August was revised down from 227,000 to 165,000, and September was revised down from 336,000 to 297,000, resulting in 101,000 fewer jobs than were previously reported, according to the BLS. The U.S. economy added 150,000 jobs in October, subject to revisions in future reports, lower than the 170,000 jobs that economists expected.
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The United Auto Workers (UAW) concluded contract negotiations with the Big Three automakers over the last week, creating a deal that raises labor costs when the automakers are already struggling against competitors, according to experts who spoke to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The Big Three automakers — Ford, General Motors and Stellantis — reached three separate tentative deals starting on Wednesday that ended a six-week-long partial strike at the companies from the UAW after workers’ contracts expired on Sept. 14. Due to the increased labor costs from higher wages and benefits, the Big Three are put at a disadvantage compared to non-unionized workforces both domestically and abroad at a time when the companies try to shift to the production of electric vehicles (EV), according to experts who spoke to the DCNF.
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Cracks in the labor market and the broader economy continue to emerge. The October jobs report released Friday morning reveals that only 150,000 jobs were created last month, below expectations and well below the recent average. August and September job creation was revised down by more than 100,000, taking the sheen off the September jobs report.
The unemployment rate rose to 3.9%. While this figure is still low, there are now nearly one million more unemployed Americans than in April of this year.
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U.S. private employers grew their payrolls by 113,000 workers in October versus September’s 89,000 new hires, a month-over increase of 21%, according to the October ADP National Employment Report, a collaboration with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab.
“No single industry dominated hiring this month, and big post-pandemic pay increases seem to be behind us,” said Nela Richardson, ADP’s chief economist, said in a statement. “In all, October’s numbers paint a well-rounded jobs picture. And while the labor market has slowed, it’s still enough to support strong consumer spending.”
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The cost Americans are paying to provide childcare for their kids has risen dramatically since 2019, outpacing inflation overall, which has also risen substantially, according to the Bank of America (BofA) Institute.
The average childcare payment has risen by 32% since 2019 to $700 a month as of September, affecting middle- and upper-income households the most, according to data compiled by the BofA Institute. In that same time period, general inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, rose 20% following a highly inflationary period since President Joe Biden took office in 2021, according to Axios.
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The Federal Reserve on Wednesday kept its benchmark interest rates, as expected.
The Fed held the rate amid a growing economy and labor market and inflation that remains about the central bank’s target. But additional increases also raise concerns about throwing the U.S. economy into a recession.
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President Joe Biden’s Commerce Department has blocked American chipmaker Nvidia from sending billions of dollars worth of key artificial intelligence (AI) chips ordered by top Chinese tech giants, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
Nvidia was set to deliver over $5 billion in chips from Chinese orders, but the Biden administration is blocking them due to new chip restrictions, according to the WSJ. Nvidia was working on sending the chips before the restrictions took effect but the company received a letter notifying it that the sanctions would take effect immediately instead of one month after their announcement on Oct. 17, as originally scheduled, individuals with knowledge of the situation told the WSJ.
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Gotion High-Tech, the Chinese parent company of Gotion Inc., which intends to build electric battery plants in Michigan and Illinois, operates a joint venture in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that contracts with a U.S.-sanctioned entity, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review of Chinese-language news reports and business filings.
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The United Auto Workers union and General Motors have reached a tentative agreement to end the auto strike, a report says, marking the possible end of a 45-day historic strike against the Big Three Automakers.
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The complete costs of “fueling” an electric vehicle for 10 years are $17.33 per equivalent gallon of gasoline, a new analysis from the Texas Public Policy Foundation says.
The study authors say the $1.21 cost-per-gallon equivalent of charging a car cited by EV advocates excludes the real costs born by taxpayers for subsidies, utility ratepayers for energy investments, and non-electric vehicle owners for mandate-and-environmental-credit-driven higher vehicle costs, which they say total $48,698 per EV. Those costs must be included when comparing fueling costs of EVs and traditional gas-powered vehicles, TPPF maintains.
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The United Auto Workers (UAW) union on Saturday expanded its strike against General Motors (GM) after it reached an agreement with its competitors on Wednesday and Saturday, the union confirmed in an X post.
The UAW and Stellantis (formerly Chrysler) reached a deal similar to the four-year agreement reached on Wednesday between Ford and the UAW, which provides a 25 percent pay increase and cost of living adjustments, as well as the ability to strike over plant closures. It was expected that GM would also make a deal with the union after Stellantis on Saturday, but instead employees at a Tennessee GM factory received orders to expand the company’s strike, the local union posted on X.
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Mortgage rates have continued to rise for the seventh straight week, reaching their highest point in over 23 years, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).
The average 30-year mortgage rate for Americans reached 7.9% on Wednesday, up from 7.7% just one week ago, the highest point since September 2000, according to a press release from the MBA. Mortgage applications sank even further following the high rates, with application volume declining 1% from the previous week when seasonally adjusted, the lowest weekly pace since 1995.
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Another offshore wind company has announced that it is expecting to take considerable losses as the industry continues to struggle, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday.
General Electric anticipates that it will lose $1 billion on its offshore wind operations this year, and that it expects to lose a similar amount next year, GE’s CEO said Tuesday, according to Bloomberg. The announcement is the latest sign of trouble for the offshore wind industry, which has seen other leading companies take substantial losses as supply chain woes, inflation, logistical problems and higher borrowing costs have eaten into profit margins.
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The number of Americans who were food insecure increased from 2021 to 2022, despite President Joe Biden boasting about the success of the economy following the recent release of new economic data.
In 2022, 12.8% of American households, or 17 million households, had difficulty at some point during the year providing enough food for all members of their family, compared to 10.2% in 2021, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The data, which was released in October 2023, comes as Biden testifies to the strength of the American economy following substantial Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 4.9% in the third quarter of 2023.
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The U.S. economy grew at a rate of 4.9% in the third quarter of 2023, according to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) statistics released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) on Thursday morning.
In the second quarter of 2023, real GDP rose 2.1% after being revised down from an initial estimate of 2.4%. Economists expected that GDP would be around 4.7% for the third quarter of 2023, far higher than the 2% to 3% that is common for the U.S.
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The United Auto Workers union and Ford Motor Company have reached a tentative deal to end the ongoing strike, pending approval from union leaders. The ongoing strike has thus far lasted nearly six weeks. Exact terms of the agreement remain unclear, though the final deal could be announced as early as Wednesday evening, CNBC reported, citing sources familiar with the talks.
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Drops in inflation-adjusted compensation and wages preceded the losses of Harry Truman in 1952, who opted not to run, Gerald Ford in 1976, Jimmy Carter in 1980, George H.W. Bush in 1992 and Donald Trump in 2020, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics and Bureau of Economic Analysis data.
They also preceded the historic wipeouts of Republicans in 2008 by Barack Obama and Senate Democrats in the 1958 midterms, and the Republican House wins of the 2010 and 2022 midterms.
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The United Auto Workers expanded its far-reaching strike on Tuesday to include a General Motors SUV plant in Texas.
About 5,000 workers at the Arlington Assembly Plant, where the Cadillac Escalade, GMC Yukon, Chevrolet Tahoe and other SUVs are made.
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Small businesses are feeling the effects of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes as tightening credit puts more businesses and workers in dangerous positions, according to The New York Times.
Interest payments for small businesses will rise to about 7 percent of revenues next year on average, as opposed to being just 5.8 percent of revenues in 2021, according to the NYT. The Fed has raised its federal funds rate to a range of 5.25 percent and 5.50 percent following a series of 11 hikes that started in March 2022, bringing the rate to its highest point in 22 years.
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Under President Joe Biden, economic growth has been partly sustained by Americans spending through their savings on everyday goods, according to experts who spoke to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a measure of economic growth, has remained persistently high, coming in at 2.1 percent for the second quarter of 2023, even as the Federal Reserve has attempted to tame growth through hikes of its federal funds rate. The main contributor to U.S. GDP is consumer spending, which has managed to notch consistent increases at the expense of the savings of average Americans, experts told the DCNF.
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A new report from the Federal Reserve claims that the average American household actually saw an increase in its net worth during the Chinese Coronavirus pandemic.
As reported by Axios, the Fed’s Survey of Consumer Finances, which is released every three years, came out on Wednesday. It was lasted conducted in 2019, thus meaning the next iteration would be held after the pandemic, covering the three-year time period from start to finish.
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by Tyler O’Neil The Southern Poverty Law Center routinely attempts to shame charities into blacklisting conservative nonprofits to defund the SPLC’s ideological opponents, whom it brands as hateful. This week, the SPLC released a report condemning six donor-advised funds for directing money to “extremist finance.” The report aims to shame the charity…
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