It happened as I went to grab a new package of baby wipes from under the sink. I flipped on my bathroom light, and I noticed something strange—one of my three mirror light bulbs began flickering and ultimately settled at a barely luminous dim setting.
My LED light went out.
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Recent advances in quantum computing have caused industry experts to believe it’s becoming viable, and Virginia wants in on the action, according to the latest edition of the Virginia Economic Review.
The Virginia Economic Development Partnership, the state’s economic development authority, used the most recent issue of its quarterly magazine to dive into the field of quantum computing – what it is and potential ways to bring it to Virginia.
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If you still think the people running America’s central bank understand inflation and interest rates, think again.
A prime example is Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Austan Goolsbee, who was wrong about inflation and is now wrong about interest rates and a soft landing for the economy. He is an ideologue clearly undeterred by facts—a scary reality for someone who helps control the money supply.
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The costs of health care for average Americans have been hit particularly hard by the sustained high inflation the U.S. economy has seen over the past few years, according to KFF, a nonpartisan organization focused on health policy.
Just this year, premiums on family health insurance coverage for workplace plans increased by 7%, even as Americans’ wages only grew by 5.2% and total inflation rose by 5.8%, while over the last five years, premiums have risen 22% with wages increasing 27% and inflation 21%, according to a KFF news release. Inflation has continued to remain well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, rising 3.7% year-over-year in September after increasing the same in August.
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by Will Kessler As long as President Joe Biden continues his high government spending policies, inflation is not likely to return to previously normal levels without seeing economic repercussions, according to experts who spoke to the Daily Caller News Foundation. The last time the Consumer Price Index (CPI), a…
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The U.S. real estate market is on track to sell the least number of homes since 2008, when Americans were engulfed in the subprime mortgage crisis and the Great Recession, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The number of total existing-home sales is projected to reach only 4.1 million by the end of 2023, the lowest since around 2008, when the world was embroiled in a global financial crisis, despite a higher U.S. population, according to the WSJ. Mortgage rates are currently at their highest point since the year 2000, with the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaging 7.57 percent, bringing purchasing demands for housing to a three-decade low, according to Freddie Mac.
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The Biden administration cut a $7 billion check on Friday to launch its vision for a hydrogen-fueled future.
The money augments $40 billion in private investment to build seven hydrogen hubs across the nation that will decarbonize transportation and industrial manufacturing, slashing 25 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year.
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The Biden Justice Department along with their cohorts at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) have broken the logic barrier once again as they issued a statement saying illegal immigrants cannot be discriminated against in getting credit.
What?
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ExxonMobil announced Wednesday that it has acquired Pioneer Natural Resources in a major deal in the oil and gas industry.
America’s largest oil company is merging with Pioneer, which controls a strong portfolio of assets in the oil- and gas-rich Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico, in an all-stock transaction valued at about $59.5 billion, Exxon announced. The deal could draw antitrust scrutiny from the Biden administration, which has already demonstrated its distaste for long-term fossil fuel development, according to Axios.
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Universal license recognition became law in Virginia on July 1 for 85 different occupations, but some legislators believe ULR should be expanded to apply to more professions in the commonwealth.
ULR helps licensed professionals in approved occupations who are moving to Virginia or live near the border and want to pursue work in the commonwealth. Now, barbers, estheticians and home inspectors, for example, who have held their license for at least three years and are in good standing can easily find work in Virginia without becoming relicensed and potentially going without work for the duration of that process.
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The U.S.’ largest bank had another huge quarter as profits soared after reaching a deal with federal regulators to buy the failed First Republic Bank in May.
JPMorgan Chase reported that, for its third quarter of 2023, net income was up by $13.2 billion, or 35%, but excluding assets acquired from First Republic, it was only up 24%, according to the banking giant’s third quarter earnings report. First Republic was one of a few banks that failed earlier this year after a bank run that shook depositors, which resulted in JPMorgan acquiring the bank after federal regulators seized its assets and auctioned them in order to maintain funds for depositors.
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The United Auto Workers (UAW) unexpectedly walked off the job Wednesday evening at the largest Ford plant in an escalation of its strike against major automakers.
Around 8,700 UAW members walked off the job at 6:30 p.m. ET at Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville yesterday in a previously unannounced move, completely shutting down the plant, according to an announcement from the UAW. The new strike location comes as UAW workers are already striking at 43 other plants at the Big Three automakers — Ford, General Motors and Stellantis — across the U.S. in a strike that started after contract negotiations failed to reach a deal before their Sept. 14 deadline.
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Consumer prices rose significantly in September, newly released federal inflation data shows, further undoing a trend of slowing inflation that had begun earlier this year.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Thursday released its Consumer Price Index, a key marker of inflation that tracks the cost of a range of consumer goods and services. That index rose 0.4% in September alone, a notable increase that is higher than months earlier this year.
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When it comes to “renewables” wreaking havoc on the environment, wind turbines have stiff competition. For example, over 500,000 square miles of biofuel plantations have already replaced farms and forests to replace a mere 4 percent of transportation fuel. To source raw materials to build “sustainable” batteries, mining operations are scaling up, with no end in sight, in nations with appalling labor conditions and nonexistent environmental regulations. But the worst offender is the wind industry.
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Consumer and Republican backlash against Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investments has increased dramatically in the past year as states, Congress and presidential candidates have taken on the issue, promising to rein in the largely green-conscious movement of capital amid spiraling energy and food costs since 2021.
Boycotts of brands such as Bud Light, Disney and Target, coupled with statements by Blackrock CEO Larry Fink that he no longer wanted to call these so-called sustainable investments ESG— at Aspen Ideas Festival on June 25 Fink said “I’m not going to use the word ESG because it’s been misused by the far left and the far right… we talk a lot about decarbonization, we talk a lot about governance … or social issues, if that’s something we need to address…”—and reported outflows from ESG funds in 2023 have painted a gloomy picture for green and socially conscious investing.
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Two of China’s top real estate developers both show signs that they may not be able to pay off their international debts as the country’s property sector continues to suffer, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Country Garden, which just one year ago appeared to be withstanding China’s tumultuous real estate crisis, failed to make a payment to international bondholders Monday after it reported disappointing September sales, according to the WSJ. China Evergrande, another major Chinese developer, abandoned a debt restructuring deal after regulators barred it from issuing new securities that it needed to fulfill its obligations due to its subsidiary being under investigation, which could now lead to the collapse of the company.
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Labor markets appeared buoyed by still-working Baby Boomers in September as the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.8 percent, with 296,000 seniors finding jobs in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ household survey.
With more than 11.1 million seniors still working — a national record — peak employment still abounds, even as a massive 47.21 million seniors are no longer in the labor force — also a record — amid the Baby Boomer retirement wave that has seen those 65-years-old-and-older not in the labor force have increased about 19 million the past 25 years.
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America’s three largest Democratic states, along with Rhode Island, Mississippi, Louisiana and the District of Columbia experienced income declines in the last year while the nation as a whole saw incomes rise by 2%. New York incomes suffered the worst, declining 1.6%, while California incomes declined the least, at just 0.2%.
These figures come from the Bureau of Economic Analysis’s revised numbers for 2022, which also reduced national growth from 2.1% to 1.9%, a cut in reported growth of roughly 10%.
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The United Auto Workers Union rejected a proposed contract by a 73% “no” vote and swore to strike Volvo-Group-owned Mack Trucks in three states beginning Monday morning. The UAW voted against ratification of a new five-year collective bargaining agreement covering about 3,900 employees in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Florida.
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Newly released inflation data breaks down how much prices have increased in each state.
The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released new data Wednesday for how the Personal Consumption Expenditure, a key marker of inflation, rose in each state last year. According to the BEA, PCE is a measure of the prices Americans pay for goods and services.
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The United Auto Workers (UAW) strike has caused billions in economic damage and could further harm supply chains and local economies as the union and automakers fail to reach a deal.
The UAW has been undergoing a partial strike against the Big Three automakers — Ford, General Motors and Stellantis — which most recently expanded to a total of 43 locations after negotiations failed to reach a contract by the Sept. 14 deadline, already causing $3.95 billion in economic losses as of Tuesday, according to the Anderson Economic Group. The strike could be devastating to the Big Three’s market position, and stoppages could have greater effects downstream as supply chains are unable to move and local economies suffer, according to experts who spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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Americans are rethinking an immigration policy carried over from last century that has worn out its welcome and contributed to a disturbing loss of opportunities for the middle class over the past six decades.
While the illegal immigrant crisis is an obvious and glaring issue that needs to be solved as soon as the next Administration is in place, conservatives are reevaluating immigration policy as a whole and beginning to see cracks in the cheap labor movement that resulted from the 1965 Immigration Act.
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Companies around the world could be in trouble in the first half of 2024 as the rising cost of debt due to heightened interest rates threatens a half-trillion dollar refinancing scramble, according to Reuters.
Businesses, particularly across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, that previously borrowed when rates were low and businesses that need to take out new loans to meet capital requirements need around $500 billion in the next half-year for refinancing to avoid cutting operations, according to Reuters, citing analysis from restructuring consultancy Alverez & Marsal. The value of company loans in the next six-month period is projected to be higher than any other similar period until the end of 2025, threatening businesses that will need to borrow during that time and risking corporate failures.
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The U.S. added 336,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in September as the unemployment rate remained at 3.8%, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data released Friday.
Economists had anticipated that the country would add 170,000 jobs in September compared to 187,000 in August and that the unemployment rate would slide down to 3.7% from 3.8%, according to Reuters. Private employment data for September showed that only 89,000 jobs were added for the month, as the professional and business services, trade, transportations and utilities and manufacturing services sectors all had substantial losses, according to ADP.
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Starbucks plans to close seven stores located in downtown San Francisco in October, a spokesperson for the company confirmed.
The corporation looked into “several factors” when it decided to close the seven locations, and added that it would continue to invest in San Francisco through its 40 other company-owned locations in the city, a Starbucks spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Although the company declined to comment on whether crime was a factor that led to its decision, all seven of the closing locations — Mission & Main, Geary & Taylor, 425 Battery, 398 Market St, 4th & Market, 555 California and Bush & Van Ness — are situated in or near the city’s troubledTenderloin district, a Starbucks store map showed.
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The federal government’s debt increased by $2,238,422,431,416.43 in fiscal 2023, according to data published by the U.S. Treasury Department.
On Sept. 30, 2022, the last day of fiscal 2022, the federal debt was $30,928,911,613,306.73, according to Treasury Department data. By Sept. 29, 2023, the last business day of fiscal 2023, it had climbed to $33,167,334,044,723.16.
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Despite drought conditions, Virginia crops are likely to produce average yields this harvest season.
Broilers (chickens raised for meat production), cattle and turkeys are the commonwealth’s top farm commodities, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 2021. Still, “miscellaneous” crops, including vegetables, barley, mushrooms, sunflowers and other field crops, are the state’s next highest-grossing commodity.
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Major automakers have laid off even more employees as union workers continue to strike at several manufacturing plants amid contract negotiations, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Ford and General Motors laid off an additional 500 workers this week, bringing the total number of workers that have lost their jobs at the companies to a combined 6,000 following a strike from the United Auto Workers (UAW), according to the WSJ. UAW is currently striking against Ford, GM and Stellantis at 43 manufacturing plants using a targeted strike strategy, with many workers remaining on the job as contract negotiations continue.
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A recent Bloomberg investigation reported on a shocking development: “The year after Black Lives Matter protests, the S&P 100 added more than 300,000 jobs — 94% went to people of color.” While only 6% of jobs at these top companies went to whites, white people make up 77% of the total U.S. workforce and about 60-65% of the adult population.
This means that after 2020’s summer of rioting for “racial equity,” all whites, and particularly young people seeking entry-level positions after college, were deprived of employment by large institutional employers on a massive scale.
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A security expert says Congress should reduce food stamp fraud as it faces a Saturday deadline to renew the Farm Bill.
Haywood Talcove is the CEO of LexisNexis Risk Solutions’ Government Group, which provides fraud prevention tools to 26 state unemployment programs and 50 U.S. banks.
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Investors bet on the U.S. entering an era of sustained high inflation as Treasury yields spike, according to Reuters.
The bond market has seen a surge in interest rates for 10-year Treasury yields, reaching 4.59 percent, the highest point since September 2007 before the country was sent into a recession just months later, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The state of the bond market indicates that investors believe that the age of low inflation and interest rates is over as the country enters a “high-pressure equilibrium,” driving inflation higher than what was previously considered normal, according to Reuters.
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Eventbrite has canceled an event speaking out against the treatments and surgeries being done to transitioning minors, citing that it violates a policy on “hateful, violent, and dangerous events.”
The event will be hosted by the Palmetto Family Council in South Carolina and will feature de-transitioner Chloe Cole. It’s set to take place on Nov. 7.
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The United Auto Worker’s Union has reached a “tentative agreement” on a new five-year agreement with the Volvo-Group-owned Mack Trucks in three states. The union posted on social media that nearly 4,000 UAW members at Mack Trucks in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Florida (UAW Region 8 & Region 9) have a tentative agreement.
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Fourteen U.S. energy groups have called on the Biden administration to prioritize U.S. energy production and American’s energy needs by developing fair and consistent federal leasing regulations.
They submitted comments to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) over a newly proposed Fluid Mineral Leases and Leasing Process rule. The rule implements changes related to royalty rates, rentals, and minimum bids for BLM-issued oil and gas leases and updates bonding requirements for leasing, development and production.
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Trade across the U.S.-Mexico border is being severely hampered due to an ongoing migrant crisis that is threatening businesses’ supply chains, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The southern border is facing a massive influx of migrants crossing into the U.S. illegally, with the U.S. Border Patrol reporting that a record high of 22,000 illegal migrants were being held in custody on Tuesday as opposed to just 7,696 on June 8. Trade that U.S. companies rely on for their supply chains is being hampered due to delays at points of entry that are being shut down by Border Patro to address the surge, according to the WSJ.
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Food brands owned by tobacco companies produce foods that are more hyperpalatable than those produced by non-tobacco companies, new research from the University of Kansas shows.
The research found that they are more likely to feature “purposely tempting combinations of salts, fats, and sugars,” according to a press release from the University of Kansas.
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California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed into law a measure that will require most fast-food workers to be paid a minimum $20 an hour.
The minimum-wage law is set to go into effect next year.
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A Democratic enclave in Wyoming purchased electric buses to reduce emissions, but the buses are indefinitely inoperable after their manufacturer went bankrupt earlier this summer, the Cowboy State Daily reported.
Jackson, Wyoming, and Teton County formed the Southern Teton Area Rapid Transit (START) system, which bought eight electric buses from Proterra to add to its fleet of 31 diesel buses, the Cowboy State Daily reported. Proterra, which itself was at the center of a conflict of interest controversy including Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, went bankrupt in August, and START’s eight e-buses are now out of commission given that the manufacturer can no longer readily supply the parts needed for repairs.
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Morning Consult’s U.S. consumer sentiment index in September declined to its lowest point in months as voters voice concerns over President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy.
Consumer confidence is decreasing once again after having risen over the course of 2023 following lows during 2022, according to Morning Consult. Moreover, as Americans remain pessimistic about their finances, they are increasingly souring on the president’s job performance, with 56% of Americans disapproving of Biden in recent Washington Post-ABC News and NBC News polls, up from previous figures.
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Bankruptcies are rising for the first time in years as more Americans feel the pressure of declining economic conditions without the reprieve of President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 pandemic-era aid programs.
Americans filed more than 39,000 personal bankruptcy cases in August 2023, up 18% year-over-year, with bankruptcies beginning to spike after reaching record lows in 2021 and 2022, with the number of filings rising for all chapters for the first time year-over-year since 2010, according to data from the U.S. Courts. The number of bankruptcies is rising as Americans are increasingly burdened by high interest rates and falling real wages, while the COVID-19 pandemic stimulus and programs that were buoying Americans with debt begin to lose effect, according to experts who spoke to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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Retailers lost more than $112 billion to crime in 2022, a roughly 19% increase in losses from 2021, a survey from the National Retail Federation (NRF) and the Loss Prevention Research Council found.
At least 28% of businesses who responded to the survey reported that they had closed locations because of organized retail theft, while 30% reduced or altered their in-store product selections. Out of the 177 retail brands surveyed, 88% said that shoplifters had become somewhat more or much more violent in 2022 compared to the previous year.
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Some employees at the popular social media platform TikTok are concerned about the influence the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has on the company as executives from its parent, ByteDance, take on new positions, according to The Wall Street Journal.
A number of high-level executives from ByteDance in China have taken on new roles at TikTok’s U.S. operation, with employees complaining internally that there may be greater CCP influence than what is being publicly disclosed, according to the WSJ. The China-based ByteDance is subject to CCP regulation and can be pressured by the government to hand over information that the company has collected, which has in the past raised concerns over whether American users of the app are having their data collected by the foreign government.
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Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has recently touted rising employment rates and general fund surpluses, causing some to wonder how much influence governors have over a state’s economy.
A regional economist from the University of Virginia argues that governors have less impact than people might think.
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Former President Donald Trump ripped President Joe Biden’s push for electric vehicles, calling it a “hit job” on Detroit and the auto industry.
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The Federal Trade Commission and 17 state attorneys general sued Amazon on Tuesday for allegedly using its power as a monopoly to illegally block competition and inflate prices.
“The complaint alleges that Amazon violates the law not because it is big, but because it engages in a course of exclusionary conduct that prevents current competitors from growing and new competitors from emerging,” the FTC said in an announcement about the complaint against Amazon.
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As Big Labor-bought President Joe Biden made his trip to Detroit on Tuesday for a photo-op stop on the United Auto Workers (UAW) picket lines, a worker freedom organization reminded those swept up in the UAW action that there are protections for workers who don’t want to strike. Nearly two…
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The Virginia Passenger Rail Authority is set to receive $100 million in federal funding for another transportation project designed to improve travel in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.
Drivers traveling from Fredericksburg into the district should be enjoying reduced commute times due to the installation of the long-awaited express lanes along the I-95 corridor. Soon, construction will begin on the Franconia-Springfield Bypass. This rail bridge will allow Amtrak and Virginia Railway Express trains to “seamlessly cross over two freight rail tracks, preventing delays and expanding capacity for additional service,” according to a press release from U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine’s office.
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Ford is pausing work on its $3.5 billion electric vehicle battery plant over concerns that the automobile manufacturer will be unable to operate the planned Michigan factory competitively in a decision that the United Auto Workers union says is a “barely-veiled threat” to cut jobs amid a strike against the company.
Officials have not made a final decision on whether the plant, which is set to be located in southern Michigan near the town of Marshall, will become operational, Ford spokesperson T.R. Reid said, CNN reported Monday.
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Republicans hold a commanding lead among voters’ views toward which party handles the economy better as President Joe Biden continues to pitch his economic policy to the American people, according to a new NBC News poll.
Republicans lead Democrats 49% to 28% among registered voters surveyed on the economy, which is the largest lead in NBC polling since 1991, according to NBC News. Biden has sought to sell his economic policy, dubbed “Bidenomics,” to Americans, which consists of high-spending stimulus programs and green energy subsidies.
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The current confluence of economic conundrums elevates risks massively for the prosperity of Americans, especially those of modest means. These unprecedented, concurring economic contradictions flow directly from the dire mistakes of the 2020 virus panic.
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