Retailer Joann Fabrics Files for Bankruptcy as Americans Cut Back on Creature Comforts

Joann Fabrics store

Major fabric and craft retailer Joann announced Monday that it was filing for bankruptcy as consumers pull back on spending due to harsh economic conditions.

The retailer recently reached an agreement with a majority of its financial stakeholders as well as other financing parties, giving the company around $132 million in new financing while also reducing the debt on the company’s balance sheet by around $505 million, according to an announcement from Joann. Retail sales across the U.S. economy have continued to slump in recent months, growing just 0.6 percent month-to-month in February, not including inflation, and declining 1.1 percent in January as consumers pull back on non-essentials as prices rise.

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Inflation Woes: Home Buyers Need 80 Percent More Income to Buy than Four Years Ago

Home Buyers

The housing market is not immune from inflationary woes as buyer’s purchasing power has significantly diminished in four years. Home buyers in 2024 need 80% more income to purchase a home than they did in 2020, according to a new report by Zillow.

“The income needed to comfortably afford a home is up 80% since 2020, while median income has risen 23% in that time,” the report states. That equates to $47,000 more than four years ago.

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‘Serious Problems’: Global Plague of Recessions Could Infect U.S., Experts Say

Office Meeting

The recessions currently plaguing several major countries around the world could be what drags the U.S. into an economic downturn of its own, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Germany announced on Monday that it fell into a technical recession in the fourth quarter of 2023, after reporting its second month in a row of negative growth, following several other top nations experiencing economic difficulties. While the U.S. has managed to avoid a recession due to its size and diverse industries, foreign economic malaise may drag the U.S. economy down through changes to trade and global inflation that would lead to a loss for American businesses, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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Commentary: Biden Gaslights America on the Economy

Biden Speaking

Joe Biden is gaslighting America on the economy. His administration is trying to oversell what has underperformed for several reasons: First, the economy is the one issue that affects most Americans most significantly. Second, Biden is doing worse on virtually every other issue. Finally, time is short: the economy is about to get worse, and the election is close. The administration’s strategy is to get Americans to believe what they hear and doubt what they see.

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More Investors Bet Inflation Is Here to Stay amid Disappointing Price Data

Investor at Work

More investors are projecting a “no landing” scenario where inflation remains elevated but economic growth continues at its current levels following a disappointing inflation report on Tuesday, according to Reuters.

Nearly one out of five fund managers polled by Bank of America predicted a “no landing” scenario as the most likely outcome in the next year, with concerns about such a scenario being intensified by a poor inflation reading that sent U.S. markets into a frenzy on Tuesday, according to Reuters. Tuesday’s consumer price index (CPI) report showed inflation decelerated in January to 3.1% year-over-year from 3.4% in the preceding month, higher than expectations of 2.9%.

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Commentary: Inflation Is the Reason Joe Biden Is So Unpopular

Joe Biden

We’ve paid much attention to President Biden’s flagging job approval here, in part because it tends to be a strong predictor of how an election will turn out. Biden is marching into this election season as likely the least popular president to face the voters since Herbert Hoover. While he may yet be saved by the fact that he is facing off against Donald Trump, who brings his own baggage to the table, it’s an ominous indicator.

At the same time, the economy is running hot. Growth is over 3%, unemployment is under 4%, and inflation has fallen from its peak. So why the seeming paradox of an unpopular president in a time of strong economic growth, especially when the strength of the economy is itself a traditional predictor of presidential job approval?

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Commentary: The Right Needs to Use Public Policies That Promote Family Values

Family of Four

It is a tale as old as time. Older generations criticize the young, usually following a particular formula. The seniors say that the young are wimpier, lazier, less ambitious, overly entitled, and have weaker characters. Examples are now easier to come by because of social media, which allows one to encounter different types of people without having to enter their social circles.

While there are many issues of concern among the young, last week a TikTok rant by a young lady about the difficulty of working and paying her bills went viral. She seemed sad and overwhelmed. Her income apparently could barely cover the rent. Of course, she probably needed a smaller place and a roommate, but her complaints are universal, even among those who are more frugal.

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Job Cuts Soar as Employers Look for Ways to Lower Costs

Frustrated Worker

The number of job cuts by American employers surged in January as companies looked to lower operating costs to adjust to harsh economic conditions, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas, Inc.

The number of positions cut by employers in January jumped 136%, with 82,307 positions cut compared to the 34,817 cut in December, according to a report from Challenger, Gray and Christmas. The job cuts come amid a wider U.S. layoff trend due to broader economic struggles, like inflation and adjustments from automation.

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Fed Continues Rate Pause with Cuts on the Horizon

The Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday that it would not change its benchmark federal funds rate, but does project rate cuts later this year.

The Fed’s decision not to raise rates keeps the target range between 5.25% and 5.50%, the highest level since 2001, marking the fourth meeting in a row where the Fed chose to not adjust the rate, according to an announcement from the Federal Reserve following a meeting by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). Investor projections for upcoming FOMC meetings are increasingly predicting a rate cut, with the market calculating around 58% odds that the rate will be reduced in March as of Jan. 31, according to CME Group.

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Inflationary Woes: More Chain Stores Closed in 2023, Continuing into 2024

Macy's Store

More chain stores closed in 2023 as a result of high inflationary costs, with the trend continuing in 2024 led by the iconic department store, Macy’s.

In 2023, retail stores, pharmaceutical and fast-food chains continued a trend of previous years: declaring bankruptcy and closing their doors or shutting down some locations to cut costs, citing inflation, higher costs, and profit losses.

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Continued Inflation Tops List of Worries for Democrats, Republicans

Grocery Shopping

A new poll shows that Democrats and Republicans are concerned more about inflation than other potential crises, but voters from the two parties don’t see eye to eye on other concerns, including the potential of a terrorist attack on U.S. soil or potential chaos after the 2024 election.

The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll conducted in conjunction with Noble Predictive Insights found that Republicans (45%) were more concerned about inflation than Democrats (32%). Concerns that inflation could continue and further drive up prices were highest for voters with children under 18 (47%) and those 45 to 54 years old (47%).

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Corporate Media in Crisis as Outlets Grapple with Biden’s Economy

Joe Biden

Numerous legacy media outlets are struggling with challenges posed by President Joe Biden’s economy and resorting to drastic measures, Axios reported on Friday.

Close to a dozen of these outlets are firing workers, dealing with employee strikes or looking to sell, according to Axios. The Federal Reserve’s imposition of high interest rates to bring down inflation is hindering their ability to accumulate more debt, complicating their efforts to extend the timeline for resolving their financial difficulties.

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Poll Finds Americans Worried About National Debt

Congress Spending

Americans are worried about the national debt, according to the results of a new poll.

Americans have the national debt crisis as one of their top concerns along with war, inflation and crime. Those polled think the overspending has a direct impact on their personal security and also has an impact on the security of the United States, according to a recent study commissioned by Main Street Economics, a nonprofit group designed to educate Americans on the nation’s debt crisis.

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Big Pharma Raises Hundreds of Drug Prices Despite Biden Admin Efforts to Keep Costs Down

Pharmacist

Top pharmaceutical companies raised the list price on 775 brand-name drugs in just the first half of January, even as President Joe Biden aims to keep prices low, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The median price hike of the drugs was around 4.5%, with some rising by 10% or more, despite an inflation rate of 3.4% year-over-year in December, according to data from 46brooklyn Research acquired by the WSJ. The price hikes are in contrast to the president’s efforts to tame rising drug prices, taking actions such as imposing automatic rebates to Medicare for drugmakers that raise their prices faster than the price of inflation, which first went into effect in December, affecting 48 drugs covered under Medicare Part B.

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Analysis Ties Surge in Inflation to Increased Spending, Value of Debt

The U.S. government and those of other countries could be using higher inflation to lessen the value of growing public debt resulting from increased spending during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new analysis by a Harvard economist working with The Heritage Foundation. 

The study covers government spending from 2020 through 2022, the high point of the pandemic, and looked at the U.S. and 20 other economies in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD. 

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Federal Reserve Employees Went Through DEI Training as Inflation Rose

New documents reveal that, as the nation suffered from the strain of historically high inflation, employees at the Federal Reserve spent more time going through diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training than addressing the financial crisis.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, the newly-obtained documents reveal that there were four DEI training sessions held in the spring and summer of 2021. These lessons featured such teachings as “correct pronoun usage is a civil right” and acknowledging “White privilege,” as well as demanding the use of “inclusive language” such as “Latinx,” a word that is meant to erase the historically gendered language used in Hispanic languages.

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Part-Time Jobs Are Booming Under Biden as Americans Look to Make Ends Meet

Uber Driver

More Americans are having to take part-time jobs as consumers struggle with economic factors like high inflation, while full-time employment has sunk in tandem, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Around 133,196,000 workers were employed with full-time jobs in the U.S. in December, which was down from 134,727,000 in November — a drop of more than 1.5 million, according to the BLS. During that same time frame, the number of Americans employed in part-time positions rose by 762,000, while the number of people with multiple jobs increased by 222,000.

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Small Business Owners Pessimistic About the Economy, Poll Shows

Small business owners are pessimistic about the future of the economy, according to a new poll.

The National Federation of Independent Businesses released the polling data Tuesday, which shows that the group’s “Small Businesses Optimism Index” decreased slightly in November to 90.1, its 23rd straight month below the historical average of small business optimism.

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Commentary: Americans Turn on Globalists Saying Government Spending, Greed, and Global Issues Drive Inflation

A new survey reveals inflation is still the primary concern for Americans by a wide margin, and the public is beginning to turn on big government and recognize government spending and globalism as the culprits behind a dwindling standard of living.

This comes at a time when the country is poised to choose between another four years of excessive spending and an evaporating middle-class or return to an America First philosophy that strengthens the middle-class and structures international policy in our favor.

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Commentary: As Inflation Cools, Fed Keeps Rates Steady, Slowdown Expected in 2024

The Federal Reserve on Dec. 13 held the Federal Funds Rate—the rate at which banks lend to each other—steady at 5.25 percent to 5.5 percent, as the consumer inflation once again cooled to 12-month average level of 3.1 percent, according to the latest data compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Leading the cooldown were drops in energy prices as gasoline dropped 6 percent in November, following a 5 percent drop in October.

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Inflation Refuses to Go Away as Prices Stay Elevated

Inflation ticked slightly down year-over-year in November but continued to remain well above the Federal Reserve’s target, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) release on Tuesday.

The consumer price index (CPI), a broad measure of the prices of everyday goods, increased 3.1% on an annual basis in November, compared to 3.2% in October, according to the BLS. Core CPI, which excludes the volatile categories of energy and food, remained high, rising 4.0% year-over-year in October, compared to 4.0% in October.

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Commentary: Bidenomics Is The Grinch Who Stole Christmas

The labor market continues to soften, with 199,000 jobs created last month, well below the recent average. Real job creation is far lower than this topline number suggests. Nearly 50,000 jobs were unproductive government jobs, continuing the trend of disproportionately high government job growth. The return of striking auto workers accounted for about 30,000 jobs. And 77,000 jobs were created in healthcare, which is a quasi-government industry. That leaves only about 40,000 jobs created in the real economy.

Real wages continue to stagnate, growing at the same rate as core inflation following significant declines in the first two years of Biden’s presidency. As usual, job creation in previous months was revised down in today’s report. Nearly one million more Americans are unemployed since April.

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Commentary: Joe Biden’s Failures Are His Successes

Joe Biden Bidenomics

If you were the owner of a professional football team, and you had just finished in last place for the third year in a row, one would expect management to implement serious personnel changes before the following season—that is if the team actually cared about winning.

Maybe the team needs a new coach that the players respect and trust to make the right play calls. Maybe they need a quarterback that doesn’t lead the league in interceptions and can run outside the pocket. Maybe they need an offensive line that will actually protect the quarterback from hitting the deck on every third and long. Maybe they need a kicker who doesn’t choke under pressure. Or maybe they just need their star wide receiver to stay healthy.

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Inflation Has Cost Average Americans over $11,000 per Year Under Biden

Just to maintain the same standard of living that Americans had at the beginning of President Joe Biden’s term, households have to spend an additional $11,434 per year, according to CBS News.

Since January 2021, when Biden first took office, inflation has risen 17%, far outpacing the 2% per year that the Federal Reserve aims for, while average hourly wages have only increased 13.6%, according to the Congressional Joint Economic Committee’s (JEC) state inflation tracker. As a result, more Americans reported that they are struggling financially than they did before the COVID-19 pandemic as persistent inflation continues to take its toll, according to CBS News.

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Commentary: Hispanics Reject Biden’s Agenda

Joe Biden and the Democrats hemorrhage Latino support into 2024. In fact, the trend grows into perhaps the biggest single liability for the Left into next year’s election. The liberal site Axios sent up a warning flare, declaring the breakdown in Biden’s Hispanic support as “an alarming, re-election-threatening, full-blown crisis for the White House.”

The latest battleground state polling from my organization, the League of American Workers, validates that assessment, and points to potential seismic gains for the cause of patriotic populism among Hispanics this election cycle. Specifically, the latest survey highlights massive Hispanic dissatisfaction with Biden and leftist policies in the key battleground of Arizona, one of the most Hispanic states in America.

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Analysis: Consumer Prices Up 6.1 Percent Since April 2021 a Personal Income Falls Behind

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 that has largely outstripped incomes. The last of the COVID transfer payments, which contributed substantially to the inflation — what Milton Friedman dubbed “helicopter money” — went out in March 2021, and so the question is how have the American people been faring since? Nominal personal income has increased at an average, annual rate of 4.4 percent, according to data compiled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the meantime, the Consumer Price Index has increased at an average annual rate of 6.1 percent. The Bureau of Economic Analysis defines personal income as “The income that persons receive in return for their provision of labor, land, and capital used in current production, plus current transfer receipts less contributions for government social insurance (domestic).” That’s slightly confusing, and so the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank defines personal income it as “the income that persons receive in return for their provision of labor,…

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Commentary: The High Price of Gaslighting Americans on Bidenomics’ ‘Success’

Anyone still wondering why voters trust former President Trump more than President Biden on the economy should read what the White House posted on X about inflation last week: “Ahead of the holiday season, costs are down for everything from airline tickets and car rentals to toys and TVs.” Biden and his underlings continue to believe public disapproval of his disastrous economic performance can be improved with happy talk and cherry picked statistics. It assumes Americans can’t remember how much less the cost of living was when Biden was elected.

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Retailers Brace for Slow Holiday Season as Inflation Bites

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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Commentary: Argentina’s First-Ever Libertarian President

Voters in Argentina have elected a libertarian as president for the first time in their history. On Sunday, Argentina had its second round of voting, and Javier Milei received 55.69% of the vote against the Peronist Sergio Massa’s 44.31%. In a country that suffers 143% annual inflation and a poverty rate hovering around 43%, Milei has a long and difficult road ahead.

Milei’s win marks the first time in 40 years that someone outside Argentina’s two largest parties was elected. La Libertad Avanza, Milei’s 3-year-old political party, finally broke through the entrenched and archaic political apparatus. In a tweet back in June, Milei stated that Argentina was choosing between the old politics and the new ideas. During his presidential campaign, Milei pledged to tackle Argentina’s inflationary unhealthy economy by dollarizing the peso and minimizing government spending.

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Commentary: Red Warning Lights Are Flashing on U.S. Economy as 2024 Rapidly Approaches

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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Mortgage Applications Increase to Six-Week High

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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Commentary: Five Stupid Things the Left Would Have You Believe

I was on a media panel talking about what the Left has done to the Fourth Estate in America and how that damage might ultimately be repaired. And afterward, I spent a lot of time interacting with sponsors and attendees, and a common thread seemed to run through those conversations.

Namely, the multiplicity of utterly indefensible, absurd propositions that make up the narratives and constructs by which our left-wing current ruling class seeks to base its power over us.

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Cost of Thanksgiving Meal Up 14 Percent, Study Finds

Turkey Dinner with all the Trimmings

According to a University of Tennessee (UT) study, American families will be spending more on this year’s Thanksgiving dinner. 

A team from the university, led by Professor and Consumer Economics Specialist Ann Berry, surveyed grocery store pricing for Thanksgiving staples between November 1 to November 8, “including turkey and stuffing, cranberry sauce, ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, English pea salad, deviled eggs, pumpkin pie with whipped cream and rolls.”

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As Inflation Worries Investors, Wall Street Is Buying Up American Soil

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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Arizona Inflation Slows in October, Though Residents Still Pay Thousands More

After months of experiencing some of America’s highest inflation rates, federal data shows many Arizonans are finally starting to see some relief.

A new report from the Common Sense Institute of Arizona reviews federal inflation data from October. The research organization found most aspects of the state’s Consumer Price Index have slowed from being among the highest in the nation at 9% in January.

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Commentary: As Consumer and Producer Inflation Cools, Recession Maybe on the Horizon in 2024

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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