US Trade Deficit in 2023 Dropped 19%, as Goods Deficit with China Plunged 29%: Imports & Exports of Goods & Services by Wolf Richter • Feb 8, 2024 • 48 Comments The much improved (or rather less horrible?) trade deficit was one of the reasons GDP was much stronger than expected.
Here Come the HELOCs: Mortgage Balances, Delinquencies, and Foreclosures by Wolf Richter • Feb 7, 2024 • 102 Comments When will it get messy for our Drunken Sailors? Not now.
Used-Vehicle Wholesale Prices Give Up 55% of Pandemic Spike: Historic Plunge after Crazy Spike by Wolf Richter • Feb 7, 2024 • 72 Comments But the plunge in retail prices of used cars and trucks hasn’t progressed nearly as much.
Auto Loan Balances, Subprime, Delinquencies, and Income: Who Are those Drunken Sailors? by Wolf Richter • Feb 6, 2024 • 98 Comments Subprime doesn’t mean “low income.” It means “bad credit” – and some is high income. And subprime loans are coming home to roost.
US Office CRE Mess Is Spread Far and Wide across Investors & Banks Globally. US Banks Eat only a Portion of the Losses by Wolf Richter • Feb 5, 2024 • 93 Comments Japanese, Canadian, and European banks started to confess. And for over a year, huge losses have hit investors, not banks.
How the Housing Market Split in Two, Doubts about the Taming of Inflation, and What’s Going on with New & Used Vehicles by Wolf Richter • Feb 4, 2024 • 88 Comments Wolf Richter on “This Week in Money”
Eyepopping Factory Construction Boom in the US: Chip Makers on Forefront, but CHIPS Act Funds Not Even Released Yet by Wolf Richter • Feb 3, 2024 • 83 Comments Supply-chain chaos, edgy US-China relations, and scary dependence on China triggered a rethink, now showing up as investments in manufacturing plants.
Great to Have a Good Job Market with Surging Wages, but Rate-Cut Mania Takes a Hit. And We Fret about Inflation Reheating by Wolf Richter • Feb 2, 2024 • 163 Comments It’s not just the top 10% or whatever who got the wage increases.
Fed Balance Sheet QT: -$1.34 Trillion from Peak, to $7.63 Trillion, Lowest since March 2021 by Wolf Richter • Feb 1, 2024 • 94 Comments The Fed shed 33% of the Treasury securities it had added during pandemic QE and 24% of the MBS.
Despite Alphabet’s Layoffs at Google, Headcount Increased for Second Quarter in a Row. But the Huge Hiring Binge Is Over by Wolf Richter • Feb 1, 2024 • 47 Comments As Powell said, the labor market is rebalancing; it’s still tight, but it’s not out of whack anymore.
