Q4 2012 real GDP grew by just 0.1% after the second revision. While technically not in contraction, 4th quarter gross domestic product results imply the economy was officially D.O.A. Trade imports plunged, which helped economic growth. Government spending cliff dove and sucked out -1.38 percentage points from 4th quarter real gross domestic product growth as federal defense spending declined 22.0% from Q3. Private inventory changes hacked off -1.55 percentage points from Q4 real GDP as businesses shed their inventories. Even without inventories in the economic growth mix, the economy is still suffering from weak demand.
The Durable Goods advance report shows new orders declined by -5.2% for January 2013. But that's not the real story as Defense new orders plunged the most since January 2009. Without defense, durable goods new orders the January decline would have been just -0.4%.
There is another round of bad news for most Americans. A study shows the top 1% of America's rich captured 121% of the income gains for the two years after the 2007-2009 recession was declared over. U.C. Berkeley Economist Emmanuel Saez released his study Striking it Richer: The Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States early this month to much press. It truly is astounding. Gone is America's strong middle class where work was rewarded.
January New Residential Single Family Home Sales soared 15.6%, or 437,000 annualized sales. Single family new home sales have not been this high since July 2008. Housing inventory is at a 4.1 month supply. Inventories haven't been this low since March 2005.
Bloomberg delved deep and determined U.S. taxpayers are subsidizing the big banks to the tune of $83 billion a year.
What if we told you that, by our calculations, the largest U.S. banks aren’t really profitable at all? What if the billions of dollars they allegedly earn for their shareholders were almost entirely a gift from U.S. taxpayers?
The December 2012 S&P Case Shiller home price index shows a 6.8% price increase from a year ago for over 20 metropolitan housing markets and a 5.9% change for the top 10 housing markets from December 2011. This is the highest yearly gain since July, 2006.
Payday loans have to be the poster child for exploiting the poor. People should never get a payday loan. Selling blood or begging in the streets is a better option. The Pew Chartable Trust has been on the warpath to expose these exploitive sorts of financial ripoffs which it turns out are quite the profitable business.
The United Kingdom's bond rating was just downgraded by Moody's from AAA to AA1, in part due to the U.K.'s austerity measures which repressed economic growth.
The January Consumer Price Index had no change from December. CPI measures inflation, or price increases. The culprit is gas prices again, which declined -3.0% for the month. Take food and energy items out of the index and CPI actually rose 0.3% from December.
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