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As the persistent pandemic has raged on, the world’s richest have only got richer, while tens of millions of people, most of them living outside the U.S., have taken a dive into poverty.
In a new report released Sunday, called “Inequality Kills,” Oxfam details how the wealth of billionaires increased more than ever before over the past two years
The nation’s worker shortage “has become a flywheel of doom, messing up our lives and society writ large,” according to Emily Peck.
“And many of the underlying problems that led to this breakdown are bigger than the pandemic.”
Because of increased restrictions on immigration and travel that began with the pandemic in early 2020, the net inflow of immigrants into the U.S. has for all intents and purposes been in a 2-year hiatus.
There are a number of interesting and useful findings and projections in the World Gold Council’s “Gold Outlook 2022” released yesterday, particularly for precious metal investors.
Here are some highlights excerpted from the report:
The Fed is playing catchup, thanks to the ever-changing economy and pandemic.
That they’re in the role of the proverbial tortoise, in an existential race versus hare-raising inflation and stubbornly persistent unemployment, is a no-brainer.
The only question is, will the world’s largest and most advanced central bank recover to overtake events of great consequence — or will those economic trials and tribulations force a reckoning, namely:
Is the Federal Reserve still relevant?
Gold could test new highs of $2,100 an ounce this year, according to David Lennox at Fat Prophets.
The U.S. dollar’s weakness and rising inflation are some factors that are likely to boost prices, according to the fund management company’s analyst.
Lennox says, “We…think across the course of 2022, we will see the gold price testing at the all-time record highs…”
Gold and silver prices fell 3.5% and 11.5%, respectively, last year – and started the first official trading day of 2022 down another 2ish percent.
Nevertheless, they’re still a solid – perhaps the best – place to have your savings, especially for the long run.
Why? Because the fundamentals of gold and silver remain strong as we embark on another year of work, play and investing for the future.
A new poll is the latest sign that job numbers are pretty strong and the stock market may be at an all-time high.
Yet, Americans are overwhelmingly grading the economy by the price they see on the shelves.
Prices paid haven't always been the top indicator of choice. When YouGov asked the question in August 2020, 44% picked the unemployment rate compared to 25% who chose inflation.
Bottom line, in the latest Economist/You Gov poll, a majority of Americans (53%) say the economy is getting worse — one point lower than the highest level of the Biden presidency, last month.
The share of global wealth held by the wealthiest people ballooned by nearly a full percentage point over the last year.
That increase in billionaires' share of wealth was the largest ever, according to the World Inequality Report 2022.
The top 0.01% of individuals now hold about 11% of the world's wealth, compared to just over 10% in 2020.
The next official government release on inflation comes Friday, as a nation of number watchers try to figure out the mixed signals sent by last week’s confusing jobs report.
Americans of all ilk — from the White House, members of Congress and Federal Reserve policymakers to mega corporations, small businesses and everyday households — are focused on persistent price gains and how they’re impacting families and the economy.
Jerome Powell and his colleagues at the Fed are getting advice from a new generation of college students; maybe that’s a group they’ll listen to.
They’re telling them to speed up the tapering, enhance communications with the public and finish their study on digital currency.
For a few minutes every semester or two, the students act as Fed officials and compete to pitch staffers the best direction for the economy.
Never mind the Wall Streeters. Here’s a fresh look from the next generation policymakers.
Market bull Phil Orlando believes the Fed will raise interest rates six times over the next two years to reign in significant ongoing consumer price increases.
Last week he said, “…we will see two quarter-point rate hikes…in the second half of [2022], and perhaps another four quarter-point rate hikes over the course of [2023].”
In other words, Orlando and his firm, Fidelity Hermes, see the Fed Funds rate rising from its current 0% to 0.25% range to 1.75% to 2.0% two years from now.
One measure of that is the latest JOLTS ratio, showing that for every job opening in September, there was significantly less than one person actually seeking a job.
The 0.7 job seekers available per job is an all-time low, with the exception of one month — April 2019 — when the stat hit 0.69. That’s according to the government’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover report, released last Friday.
Inflation came in like a hot potato last month.
At 6.2% for all items, virtually no economist wants to touch it, politicians just want to play the blame game, and few everyday Americans see a silver lining.
There are always a ton of ways to slice and dice inflation, including what it actually is and the best way to measure it.
Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping have nothing over Xi Jinping.
Mao and Deng are the only two Chinese Communist Party Leaders to pen a so-called “historical resolution”…that is, until now.
Last Friday, the DJIA, S&P 500 and NASDAQ all closed up. But too big to fail banks lost billions of dollars in market cap.
Among the biggest losers were Citigroup — closing down 1.7%, Credit Suisse — down 1.6%, and Deutsche Bank — down 1.3%.
In the second tier, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays and Goldman Sachs closed down between 0.1% and 0.4%.
Their problem appeared to be the flattening of the Treasury yield curve.