Everyday Economics: Signs of Slowing Economic Activity as Jobs Report Looms

Business office

The upcoming week is filled with crucial economic data releases that will provide insight into the state of the U.S. economy as it transitions into 2025. A mix of labor market reports and key Fed communications will shift expectations about growth and Fed policy, resulting in large swings in the interest rates that govern consumer borrowing costs for credit cards, auto loans and mortgages.

The main event is the December jobs report, where employment gains are expected to have slowed.

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Mortgage Rates Near Six-Month Peak as Bidenomics Burns Through American Buying Power

U.S. mortgage rates rose to an almost six-month high toward the end of 2024, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

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Fake News-a-Palooza: 50 Examples of Media Misdirection and Manipulation

Media Newsroom / AI

Reflecting back on 2024 and looking forward to a future with less misinformation and more facts, Just Facts has summarized 50 false or misleading claims spread by journalists, commentators, and so-called fact checkers during the past year.

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Commentary: Reducing Housing Costs

Home Owners new

Can Donald Trump reduce house prices?

A recent study by Redfin found that millions of Americans are skipping meals, selling belongings, and even delaying medical care to afford housing. Three in four Americans making less than $50,000—nearly half of Americans make less than $50,000—say they “regularly struggle” to keep a roof over their head.

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Prices Rose over 20 Percent Under Joe Biden’s Administration

Grocery Shoppers

President Joe Biden is only a few weeks away from the end of his time in office, and one key part of his legacy is undeniable: inflation.

Biden has battled inflation from the start, but critics say he helped fuel it with trillions of dollars in deficit spending during his four years in office. Federal debt spending is offset in part by printing money, which increases inflation.

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Commentary: ‘Freedom Cities’ Could Be the Key to Unlocking America’s Future

We’ve all heard it: “You can’t make somethin’ out of nothin’.” Or so it would seem, though president elect Donald J. Trump appears destined to try if his plan to create new American cities out of currently mostly barren federal lands ever comes to fruition.

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Report: Average American Household Has More than $10,000 in Credit Card Debt

Empty Wallet

The average American household credit card balance as of the third quarter of 2024 was about $10,757 after adjusting for inflation, according to a new study.

The personal-finance website WalletHub on Friday released its new Credit Card Debt Study, which found that consumers added $21 billion in debt during the third quarter of 2024.

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Harvard Economist Warns of ‘Resurgence of Inflation’

Grocery shopping

Federal pricing data released this week for consumer and producer prices shows that inflation rose last month.

Harvard professor and former economic advisor to President Barack Obama Jason Furman said the consumer data could show a “resurgence of inflation” not to the ultra high levels in recent years but to more recent elevated data.

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Trump Open to Reparations Fund for Victims of Crimes Committed by Illegals

Trump on Phone

Gaining momentum two weeks from Election Day, Donald Trump is laser focused on voters’ top priority of making America safe and affordable again. But after spending hours comforting families victimized by murder, rape and other border crimes, the former president told Just the News he also is open to creating a federal compensation fund for Americans harmed by illegal immigrants let into the country under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

The idea of a border crimes reparations fund like the one created for the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks has been floating around conservative circles for months, including in Congress where Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., even introduced the concept before it stalled.

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