For August, the portion of small businesses reporting that the U.S. economy was improving fell to its lowest level since the government shutdown of 2013, according to a monthly survey of small firms by The Wall Street Journal and Vistage International Inc. The survey was completed in mid-August, before concerns about an economic slowdown in China triggered a selloff across global markets.
For August, the portion of small businesses reporting that the U.S. economy was improving fell to its lowest level since the government shutdown of 2013, according to a monthly survey of small firms by The Wall Street Journal and Vistage International Inc. The survey was completed in mid-August, before concerns about an economic slowdown in China triggered a selloff across global markets.
An alternative measure of economic output, gross domestic income, advanced at a much slower 0.6% pace last quarter. By that gauge, economic growth barely inched ahead in the first half of the year. (GDI advanced at 0.4% pace in the first quarter versus a 0.6% increase for GDP.)
Less than a third of governments seeking a global climate agreement have submitted plans for reducing emissions, raising concerns over developing countries’ commitment to a deal months before talks are meant to culminate in Paris.
U.S. employers are adding jobs at a steady clip though the labor market is showing little sign of overheating, factors likely to reassure Federal Reserve officials as they weigh their first interest-rate increase since 2006.
We know that the economic recovery’s effects have been unevenly felt. The recovery has been kind to those who invested in certain stocks or whose title begins with the word “chief.” It’s been less charitable to certain groups, like African American workers, whose unemployment rates have lingered in the double-digits for most of the past eight years.
The price index for personal-consumption expenditures, the Fed’s preferred inflation measure, rose 0.2% in June from a month earlier, the Commerce Department said. From a year earlier, prices were up just 0.3%.
The implication is the federal government is fueling a vicious cycle of higher prices and government aid that ultimately could cost taxpayers and price some Americans out of higher education, similar to what some economists contend happened with the housing bubble.
Whatever the merits of 1,231 individual waivers issued under ObamaCare, a law implemented largely through waivers and exemptions is not law-like. In such a system, where even hairdressers and tour guides are subjected to arbitrary licensing requirements, all the advantages accrue to established, politically-connected businesses.
U.S. labor costs rose at the slowest pace in at least three decades in the spring, a sign of persistently sluggish wage growth that could weigh on the Federal Reserve’s decision to raise short-term interest rates.
The U.S. economy accelerated modestly in the second quarter after a slow start to 2015, but growth this year is still less than last year’s tepid first half and is well below the overall pace of the recovery.
Fearing a similar slide into irrelevance, port operators from Newark, N.J., to Long Beach, Calif., are spending billions of dollars to dredge harbors, raise bridges and build larger terminals to accommodate megaships.
An important measure of layoffs hit its lowest mark since the Nixon administration, a sign of increasing momentum in the labor market and a possible hint at the extent of job growth for the full month of July.
An annual report card Wednesday from the trustees of both programs showed that the long-term deficits associated with the two largest benefit programs would be slightly smaller than forecast last year. The report also offered the latest warning that the Social Security disability-insurance program will exhaust its reserves late next year, which would trigger a 19% cut in benefit payments.
As usual, purported consumer activists are blaming collusion among putatively monopolistic oil companies. The real culprit is anti-carbon regulation promoted by a cartel of green activists and liberal politicians that is aimed at raising energy costs to discourage consumption. Sticker shock at the pump, like water rationing and high electric rates, is the price Californians must pay for their environmental virtue.