The latest snapshot of Wisconsin’s housing market isn’t all that great, although realtors say there are signs things are improving.
The Wisconsin Realtors released their April 2023 report on Thursday, and it shows that both sales and home inventories are down, while prices are up.
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Regardless of a slowdown in the rise of inflation, Americans report that higher prices are causing financial hardship, a new poll indicates.
Gallup released the poll data Thursday, which found that 61% of those surveyed say price hikes have caused financial hardship, up from 49% in January of last year. That 61% figure is a high point for Americans since Gallup began tracking the data in 2021, when inflation was growing faster.
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Americans’ views of the housing market have plunged as interest rates continue to rise because of government-fueled inflation.
Gallup released new polling data showing that only 21% of Americans say now is a good time to buy a house, down 9 percentage points from the previous year. This year and last year during the Biden administration are the only times that fewer than half of Americans said it was a good time to buy a house since Gallup began asking in 1978.
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The Federal Reserve Bank on Wednesday raised interest rates a quarter of a point again in an effort to cool inflation. “The Committee seeks to achieve maximum employment and inflation at the rate of 2 percent over the longer run. In support of these goals, the Committee decided to raise the target range for the federal funds rate to 5 to 5-1/4 percent,” the Fed said in an announcement about the rate hike. The rate was 4-3/4 to 5 percent.
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President Joe Biden announced his re-election campaign Tuesday, insisting he’s running again to “stand up for fundamental freedoms.”
Republicans in the nation’s presidential battleground states say the out-of-touch 80-year-old Democrat has cost Americans their freedoms — and their finances.
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Inflation rose again in March, but at a slower pace than previous months, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics latest consumer pricing data shows.
The Consumer Price Index rose 0.1% in March, contributing to a 5% rise over the last 12 months, about double what economists say is a healthy inflation rate. Price changes varied by the respective good and service.
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Liberal Wisconsin U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin made it official Wednesday, announcing her quest for a third term.
The Madison Democrat insists “Wisconsinites need someone who can fight and win,” but Baldwin has shown during her time in D.C. that she’s a very dependable vote for the far left agenda — an agenda that’s out of touch with many voters in the politically purple Badger State.
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This week’s jobs report reveals the labor market is finally starting to crack under the weight of two years of Bidenflation and the resulting rapid increase in interest rates.
The economy created the fewest jobs last month than in any month in Biden’s presidency. The average weekly hours for employees also fell again.
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The Federal Reserve hiked its target federal-funds interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point Wednesday, the ninth in a series of hikes that started in March 2022.
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Inflation has outpaced wages for nearly two years, recently released federal data shows.
A closer look at federal wage and pricing data shows workers are making less overall as the price for all kinds of goods and services rise faster than average hourly wages.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks “real” average hourly earnings, which are wages of Americans with rising inflation taken into account.
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A majority of Americans polled said they couldn’t afford to pay emergency expenses or cover their living expenses for just one month if they lost their primary source of income, according to Bankrate’s latest Annual Emergency Savings Report. The main reason cited is record-high inflation.
The majority surveyed, 68%, said they’re “worried they wouldn’t be able to cover their living expenses for just one month if they lost their primary source of income.”
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The Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, surged past economists’ expectations in January, breaking a recent downward trend, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) Friday.
The PCE price index jumped by 0.6% on a monthly basis, and climbed to 5.4% on a year-over-year basis, up from 5.3% in December, the BEA reported. Economists had predicted the year-over-year number would continue to fall to 5% in January, but prices instead shot up at the highest levels since June, The New York Times reported.
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The national debt has risen at a blistering pace over recent decades and is now higher than any era of the nation’s history—even when adjusted for inflation, population growth, and economic growth (GDP).
Denying this reality, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman recently wrote two columns for the New York Times in which he claimed that the debt is an “overhyped issue” and “isn’t all that unusual” from a historical perspective. His attempts to support these assertions employ the kind of fraudulent accounting that could land a corporate executive in jail.
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It is frustrating that so many otherwise competent, knowledgeable economists and commentators are failing to land a punch on President Joe Biden regarding inflation.
It’s not that people don’t know the economy is floundering. They do. Almost 66% of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track, according to the latest RealClearPolitics polling average, a sentiment driven by inflation and the difficulties it has caused for people trying to keep up with household expenses.
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The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released fresh inflation figure Tuesday which show inflation picked back up in January.
The BLS Consumer Price Index rose 0.5% last month, part of a 6.4% increase over the last year. Overall, January’s rate is not as high as the peak inflation spikes seen in recent years, but it is still well above the increases considered advantageous by most economists.
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President Joe Biden paid a call on Wisconsin Wednesday, touting job creation and boasting that the Big Government agenda he laid out in this week’s State of the State address will get the nation’s economy humming.
But the president’s cheerleading tour conflicts with the realities on the ground for Badger State businesses dealing with higher prices, supply chain issues and labor shortages.
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In his state of the state address last month, Gov. Tony Evers boasted about Wisconsin’s low unemployment rate. What the Democrat failed to mention is Wisconsin’s dismal labor participation rate, a number that underscores one of the biggest economic challenges facing Badger State businesses.
“Our labor force participation rate is worse today than it was at the bottom point of COVID when our economy was shut down,” said Scott Manley, Executive Vice President of Government Relations for Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce.
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by John Hugh DeMastri The Federal Reserve raised its target federal-funds interest rate by a quarter percentage point Wednesday, the slowest in a series of eight hikes that began in March 2022. The hike brings the Fed’s target rate to a range between 4.5 percent and 4.75 percent, with…
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The Federal Reserve is likely to further slow its historically aggressive pace of interest rate hikes at its Wednesday meeting as inflation cools, but consumers will still feel the pinch of higher interest rates, according to economists who spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation. The Fed is likely to hike interest rate hikes by just 0.25 percentage points after its Wednesday meeting, setting the range for its target federal-funds rate to between 4.5% and 4.75%, due to slowing inflation, The Wall Street Journal reported.
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An investigation has been launched into a three-alarm fire Saturday that reportedly killed about 100,000 chickens at the Hillandale egg farm in Bozrah, Connecticut. At least 16 firehouses and more than 100 firefighters responded to the massive blaze, reported Fox61 News.
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The United States Customs and Border Protection is asking Americans to stop trying to smuggle in raw eggs from Mexico.
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When the Federal Reserve convenes at the end of January 2023 to set interest rates, it will be guided by one key bit of data: the U.S. inflation rate. The problem is, that stat ignores a sizable chunk of the country – rural America. Currently sitting at 6.5%, the rate of inflation is still high, even though it has fallen back slightly from the end of 2022.
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Prices for electricity in the United States soared well above overall inflationary levels last year, putting an added squeeze on consumers already reeling from significantly inflated costs of most consumer goods. The Consumer Price Index Summary released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics this month showed the 12-month average price of electricity last month jumping a whopping 14.3 percent, more than double the 6.5 percent of overall price increases.
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Battered by ongoing high inflation, a majority of Wisconsin businesses see a recession ahead, according to Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce’s latest Wisconsin Employer Survey.
WMC’s survey finds 60 percent of businesses believe the Badger State economy is headed for a recession this year. On the surface, the number appears to be an improvement from last summer’s survey when 71 percent of respondents worried a recession was looming. But Nick Novak, WMC’s vice president of communications and marketing, said more employers moved from being sure about a recession to uncertain about the economy.
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Are you wondering why checking out at the grocery store these days feels like making a mortgage payment? This week’s four-decade-high inflation is a direct result of the Federal Reserve taking its eye off the ball over the last two years. Instead of focusing on its mandate of keeping prices stable, it has been more concerned with financing massive federal deficits and kowtowing to liberal ideology.
But now the Fed chair is claiming just the opposite.
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Average interest rates for bank-issued credit cards this past November surpassed a record set in 1985, Axios reported Wednesday, citing data from the Federal Reserve.
The previous record rate was 18.9%, set in the first quarter of 1985, with November’s rate of 19.1% comfortably eclipsing it, according to Axios. Credit card interest rates climbed alongside the Federal Reserve’s federal funds rate, which the Fed hiked a historically aggressive pace in 2022 to blunt economic demand and reduce the impact of inflation, NPR reported.
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Of the 23 major financial institutions that work directly with the Federal Reserve, 16 anticipate a recession within the next 12 months, with two anticipating one the year after, according to a survey published by The Wall Street Journal Monday.
These institutions, which range from Bank of America to UBS, note that Americans are spending their savings, banks are heightening lending standards and the housing market is in a decline, all classic warning signs that a recession is impending, the WSJ reported. All of this is being exacerbated, the banks say, by the Fed’s historically aggressive pace of interest rate hikes, designed to blunt stubbornly persistent inflation.
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Food prices soared in 2022, and so far there are few solutions on the horizon for 2023.
The latest Consumer Price Index Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that grocery prices increased 12% in the previous 12 months, far higher than the already elevated inflation rate.
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Venezuela, Cuba and Argentina registered the highest inflation in 2022 compared to other Latin American countries, according to figures from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and BCC reports .
The report covers the period between October 2021 and October 2022, where the highest growth of the index is led by the Caribbean country, which accumulates an increase in inflation of 146%, exceeding that of Argentina by more than 50 percentage points (87 8%), the second on the list, and Cuba, which ranked third with 34.2%.
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Newly released federal inflation data shows that inflation rose slightly in November.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis released its Personal Consumption Expenditure Index Friday, a key inflation marker, which showed a 0.1% increase in November, contributing to a 5.5% increase from the same time last year.
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Americans may want to light the fireplace more often this winter and cut back on the holiday festivities, according to new data from the Energy Information Administration and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Energy costs have remained consistently high for over a year, having risen over 13% since November 2021. So, American families can expect to pay significantly more for their heating oil as the colder months approach. As of the week of Dec. 12, the average cost for residential heating oil hit $4.56 per gallon, which is about 95% higher than it was the week of Dec. 14, 2020, shortly before President Joe Biden took office.
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Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson (R) joined with his colleagues Senators Rick Scott (R-FL), Mike Lee (R-UT), Mike Braun (R-IN), and Rand Paul (R-KY) to oppose the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill and argue for an amendment that would eliminate all earmarks.
“Thousands of individual projects here, both Democrat and Republican,” Johnson said Tuesday during a press conference
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Small businesses around the country still see inflation as a top concern this Christmas season.
Goldman Sachs released survey data that found that 52% of surveyed small business owners say that their profitability “has not met expectations. Even while an overwhelming 79% have increased prices compared to last year.”
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The Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced a reduced but still notable hike in U.S. interest rates, with the central bank moving to hike rates by half a percentage point as part of its ongoing efforts to tamp down inflation.
The hike, which comprises 50 basis points, is less than the three-quarter-point hikes the bank has enacted every month for the last several months, though it still represents a significant raise at a time when the economy remains fragile after years of turmoil and unertainty.
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An economist says the average American family has effectively lost more than $7,000 due to inflation and higher interest rates since President Joe Biden took office.
The consumer price index, a key inflation measure, increased 0.1% in November, up 7.1% from November 2021, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday. The figure marks a slowdown in rampant inflation, but not a reversal of the trend that has caused prices for everyday goods like food and gas to ratchet up in recent months.
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While overall inflation has slowed from its rapid pace earlier this year, grocery prices continue to rise, putting Americans in a pinch, according to newly released federal inflation data.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the monthly Consumer Price Index report, which showed prices rose 0.1% in November, less than experts predicted, contributing to a 7.1% increase in the past 12 months.
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The average price for a gallon of gas has fallen below what it was one year ago, and the White House is preparing to go on the offense politically as consumers see more money in their pockets ahead of the holidays. The administration argument? Thank President Biden.
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Last week, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen blamed the American people for the 40-year high inflation we have been enduring.
Appearing on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” she said that Americans “were in their homes for a year or more, they wanted to buy grills and office furniture, they were working from home, they suddenly started splurging on goods, buying technology.” According to her, this consumer “splurging” caused prices to rise so much.
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Wholesale prices beat expectations in November, a sign that inflation might not fall as quickly or steeply as previously hoped, according to CNBC.
Producers and businesses saw prices rise 0.3% from October, with so-called “core prices” rising 0.4% when the more volatile food and energy sectors were discounted, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). With both measures expected to rise by just 0.2%, as well as a 3.3% increase in food costs offsetting a 3.3% decline in energy costs, producers prices are still set to remain well above pre-pandemic levels, even though they have fallen from the 11.7% year-over-year surge seen in March, CNBC reported.
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Inflation has slowed from its rapid growth in the past two years, but surveys show Americans are still feeling the pain from the jump in prices.
Gallup released new polling data Tuesday showing that 55% of those surveyed say inflation is causing financial hardship for their household. Notably, 13% of Americans say inflation has caused their families “severe hardship.”
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by Gelet Martínez Fragela As Republicans continue to grapple with a devastating loss among young adults from the 2022 midterm elections, some statistics suggest the GOP has an opportunity to pick up some traction with the Latino youth vote as their concerns could grow with age about crime, inflation…
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The dust has barely settled from the contentious midterms, and the battle lines are already being drawn for the next legislative fight in Washington: the debt ceiling. With the nation at unprecedented levels of indebtedness, the choice in this fight is a stark one: a path toward stability or fiscal Armageddon.
If that sounds hyperbolic, consider the following facts about America’s finances.
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Inflation rose slightly in October, newly released federal data show.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis released the Personal Consumption Expenditure index, a key inflation marker, which showed the index rose 0.3% in October.
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Our debt is too large. Inflation is too high. We rarely pass a budget anymore — this year neither Budget Committee even bothered to come up with one. This is how great nations become weakened nations, and with all the threats on the world stage, it is urgent we make a change now.
What we need is a budget that changes our fiscal trajectory away from one where the debt is growing faster than the economy, to one where it is stabilized and then gradually brought down.
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October’s Consumer Price Index, the measure of the national rate of inflation, was at 7.7 percent in October, compared to a reading of 8.2 percent in September. The report propelled “U.S. stocks forward [at the open] and sent Treasury yields tumbling as Wall Street weighed the implication of softer prints on Federal Reserve policy.”
The decline in the rate of inflation was driven by declining annual prices of “necessities” such as smartphones (-22.9 percent), admission to sporting events (-17.7 percent), televisions (-16.5 percent), and women’s outerwear (-1.4 percent), all items that are discretionary purchases.
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Thanksgiving dinner will cost 20% more this year compared to last year, according to a Farm Bureau survey published Wednesday, with the market signaling record-high prices for the second year in a row.
The average cost to feed 10 people for Thanksgiving will be $64.05, or under $6.50 per person, the Farm Bureau said. This is a $10.74 or 20% cost increase from 2021’s average of $53.31, which was also a record high at the time, according to historical data.
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An economist says the average American family has lost upward of $7,000 due to inflation.
The consumer price index increased 0.4% in October, up 7.7% from Oct. 2021, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Thursday.
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With only days left until the midterm elections, the advertising blitz from the political spin doctors has reached a fever pitch and the sound bites we’re hearing aren’t very sound, especially the ones from the White House on the economy. But heated rhetoric is hardly a replacement for facts and figures so, to borrow a phrase from the show Dragnet, let’s discuss “just the facts, ma’am.”
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The Federal Reserve announced an interest rate hike of 0.75 percentage points, bumping the range of the federal interest rate to between 3.75% and 4% following a Wednesday meeting of Fed policymakers.
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Abortion is not a top priority for female voters and most women support abortion limits that would have been considered unconstitutional under the Roe v. Wade precedent, a new poll found, dashing Democrats’ hopes of an electoral advantage over abortion.
Inflation was about four times as likely to be listed as the most important issue for female respondents compared to abortion, with only 54% saying abortion was very important in determining their vote compared to 74% for inflation, according to the RMC Research/America First Policy Institute poll shared exclusively with the Daily Caller News Foundation. The polling cuts against a common Democratic talking point: that overturning Roe would be an electoral boon for Democrats as pro-abortion voters, and women in particular, flocked to the polls in November.
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