That Recession in US Industrial Economy? Stocks Show It, Too Read more: That Recession in U.S. Industrial Economy? Stocks Show It, Too Important: Can you afford to Retire?

A group of industrial stocks is posting its biggest declines since 2008, a sign that investors agree with a Fastenal Co. executive who said parts of the U.S. economy are in a recession.  Read more

Productivity in U.S. Rises as Self-Employed Work Fewer Hours

Worker productivity unexpectedly grew in the third quarter, reflecting a slump in the number of hours worked by self-employed Americans.

The measure of employee output per hour increased at a 1.6 percent annualized rate, exceeding all estimates of 57 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The total number of hours worked from July through September dropped by the most in six years, dragged down by an annualized 18 percent plunge among those working for themselves.  Read more

Chinese Buying Up $30 Billion in US Homes as China's Economy Sputters Read more: Money Exodus: How Chinese Secretly Send Billions Abroad to Buy Homes Important: Can you afford to Retire?

The ranks of China’s wealthy continue to surge. As their economy shows signs of weakness at home, they’re sending money overseas at unprecedented levels to seek safer investments — often in violation of currency controls meant to keep money inside China.  Read more

EU Cuts Growth and Inflation Outlook as ECB Decision Looms

The European Commission cut its euro-area growth and inflation outlook for next year, citing more challenging global conditions and fading impetus from lower oil prices and a weaker euro.

Gross domestic product in the 19-nation bloc is set to grow 1.8 percent in 2016, down from a previous projection of 1.9 percent in May, the Commission said in its autumn forecast published Thursday. Inflation is seen accelerating to 1.6 percent in 2017 from 0.1 percent this year.  Read more

German manufacturing orders fall for third month

FRANKFURT--The gloom among German manufacturers deepened in September, as orders in the sector registered their third straight monthly drop, a sign that slower growth in China and recessions in other key developing markets are starting to hurt Europe's largest economy.  Read more

Pacific Trade-Deal Nations Commit to Refrain From Currency Wars

The dozen countries that signed the Trans-Pacific Partnership have committed to refrain from competitive currency devaluations and be transparent about their exchange-rate policies, the U.S. said.

Negotiators for Pacific Rim nations including the U.S., Japan, Australia and Vietnam agreed last month to the deal, which would cut trade barriers on items ranging from cars to rice. It requires ratification by Congress.  Read more

Details of controversial trans-Pacific trade deal released

WASHINGTON –  Details of a sweeping Pacific Rim trade deal released Thursday set the stage for a raucous debate in the U.S. Congress but also may provide reassurances to those who worried the agreement could gut protections for the environment, public health and labor.

The text of the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement between the U.S. and 11 other Pacific Rim countries runs to 30 chapters and hundreds of pages. It lays out plans for handling of trade in everything from zinc dust to railway sleepers and live eels.  Read more

This index signaled the 2000 and 2007 crashes—and it's falling again

Stocks with big buyback programs are struggling this year, and according to one technician, a similar lag has previously preceded two market crashes.

Out of the nine S&P 500 companies with the biggest buyback programs, four are down in stock price over the last year. Exxon Mobil,IBM, 21st Century Fox and Merck are all negative for the year, andOracle and Intel are fighting to hold onto incremental gains.  Read more

Juvenile Delinquents Are Now 'Justice-Involved Youth'

They used to be called juvenile delinquents. But not any more.

The new term is "justice-involved youth," a non-disparaging, government-speak phrase that fits with the Obama administration's recent push to give people with criminal convictions a second chance to become productive citizens.  Read more

School suspends first grader over imaginary bow and arrow

CINCINNATI, Ohio – Cincinnati parents Matthew and Martha Miele are considering removing their son from private school after the first-grader was suspended for three days for pretending to be a Power Ranger.

Martha Miele told WLWT Our Lady of Lourdes Principal Joe Crachiolo called her at work Thursday afternoon after a teacher witnessed her son pretend to shoot another student with an imaginary bow and arrow on recess and brought it to his attention.

Miele said her son was pretending to be a character from the popular Power Rangers children’s program, and didn’t understand why the school wanted to suspend him over his imagination.  Read more

Iran's Revolutionary Guard reportedly behind cyberattacks against White House personnel

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is behind a recent wave of cyberattacks on email and social media accounts of White House personnel that are believed to be connected to the arrest of an Iranian-American businessman last month, U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal.

Siamak Namazi, 40, a Dubai-based businessman who has spent most of his life advocating improved ties between the U.S. and Iran, was arrested in October as he was visiting relatives in Tehran. His detention came after an Internet freedom group said a Washington-based Lebanese citizen, Nizar Zakka, disappeared while on a trip to Tehran in September.  Read more

Obama administration pulls references to Islam from terror training materials, official says

Deputy U.S. Attorney General James Cole confirmed on Wednesday that the Obama administration was pulling back all training materials used for the law enforcement and national security communities, in order to eliminate all references to Islam that some Muslim groups have claimed are offensive.

“I recently directed all components of the Department of Justice to re-evaluate their training efforts in a range of areas, from community outreach to national security,” Cole told a panel at the George Washington University law school.  Read more

Five Things You Need to Know About George Soros

Leftist puppet-master George Soros does not like being the topic of news. He prefers ventriloquizing Democratic candidates and funding his liberal agenda from behind the curtain. This week, Soros was drawn out from the shadows by Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban, who accused the billionaire investor "of being a prominent member of a circle of 'activists' trying to undermine European nations by supporting refugees heading to the continent from the Middle East and beyond," according to Bloomberg Business.  Read more

In blow to Obama, Cameron reportedly drops plans to join US in Syria airstrikes

British Prime Minister David Cameron reportedly has dropped plans for a parliamentary vote on extending anti-ISIS airstrikes to Syria, in the latest blow to President Obama’s attempts to form a stronger coalition against the Islamic terror group. 

Though the U.K. has joined the U.S. in conducting airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq since 2014, multiple U.K. media outlets including The Guardian and The Times of London reported Cameron was hoping to put a vote forward in the House of Commons on joining the U.S. as the Obama administration seeks to regain its foothold amid a surging Russian presence. Those outlets report Cameron has since shelved the move.   Read more

Republicans make history in Kentucky election

Republicans made history on two fronts in Kentucky Tuesday night – not only did Matt Bevin become the state’s second GOP governor in four decades, but running mate Jenean Hampton became the first African-American ever elected to Kentucky statewide office. 

Hampton’s historic accomplishment winning the lieutenant governor post was initially overshadowed by Bevin’s hard-fought gubernatorial race win over Democratic state Attorney General Jack Conway, an off-year election battle that drew national interest.   

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Graphic on federal programs for low-income people tells all

This graphic was created by staff from the House Ways and Means Committee to represent the 80+ federal benefit programs and services for low-income people in the United States.  Read more

Five reasons to want a rate hike

The reason this is important is that December is obviously the last month of the year, but specifically, this year it is the last month prior to the start of an election year. Despite the fact that the Fed is meant to be apolitical, they have historically tried to avoid policy changes in election years. Part “B” to this is that the Fed desperately wants to raise the overnight rate from zero to something nominal like 0.25%. Their thinking is that, should the economy slow, they need some ammunition (lower rates back to zero) to help stimulate the economy and stave off a recession.  Read more

Peter Schiff: 'Creeping Communism' Arises From World's Central Banks Read more: Peter Schiff: 'Creeping Communism' Arises From World's Central Banks Important: Can you afford to Retire?

A government takeover of capitalist economies may result from the expanded role of central banks in controlling the direction of free markets.

That’s the prediction of Peter Schiff, the president and CEO of Euro Pacific Capital Inc. who has criticized the Federal Reserve for distorting markets and pushing investors into high-risk investments. The central bank has held interest rates near zero percent since 2008, when the U.S. economy declined the most since the Great Depression.  Read more

Druckenmiller: Fed Bubble Will Not End Nicely

Hedge fund manager Stanley Druckenmiller warns that the Federal Reserve has inflated an economic bubble that is poised to burst.

The chief executive of Duquesne Capital said "the central bank has created a bubble of short-term investing through its near-zero interest rates and quantitative easing,"   Read more

11 Reasons Conservatives Dominated Election Day 2015

Voters delivered major defeats to liberal ballot initiatives and liberal office-seekers across the country on Tuesday, making Election Day 2015 a clear win for conservatives. 

Gathered below are 11 reasons why voters across the U.S. rejected liberal causes and supported Republican candidates.   Read more

Conservatives Score Big Victories From Coast to Coast

Republicans and conservatives notched stunning wins in elections across the country in victories amid voter sentiment fueled by a "year of the outsider."

Voters in Kentucky, Virginia, Ohio, Mississippi, and in cities like Houston and San Francisco soundly rejected Democratic candidates or Democrat-backed measures.  Read more

Fed insider says most long-term unemployed won’t get hired again

Job market tightest in 15 years if long-term unemployed cast aside

The labor market is tighter now than anytime in the past 15 years and the jobless rate could really be as low as 4.6%, using different ways to look at U.S. employment.

Says who? A senior official at the St. Louis Federal Reserve. But if that’s true, it probably means tough luck for at least 1 million Americans who have been out of work for a long time.  Read more

Short-term Treasury yields hit 4-year high after Yellen points to December rate hike

Short-term Treasury yields jumped Wednesday to their highest level in four years, after Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen said a December interest-rate hike could be appropriate.

The comments, provided during Wednesday testimony in front of the House Financial Services Committee, reiterated a similar statement by the Fed after its October policy meeting.  Read more

Weak Wage Growth Tied to Weak Productivity

The basic laws of supply and demand haven’t applied to American employers.

A healthy number of new jobs created each month combined with a rapidly falling headline unemployment rate would seemingly suggest a tightening labor market that in turn would force American employers to pay higher wages.

But that hasn’t happened.  Read more

ExxonMobil CEO: U.S. Jobs Story Could Get Worse

If you’re looking to the energy sector for a positive economic indicator, you might be hard-pressed to find any good news. During an interview with the FOX Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo, ExxonMobil (XOM) CEO Rex Tillerson painted a very bleak picture on the economy and jobs.

“If you look at energy for kind of a proxy for how the economy is going, it’s pretty sluggish and there’s not a lot that we can see on the horizon through next year that’s going to change that,” he said.

Tillerson said the U.S. economy has been “sluggish” since the downturn of 2009.  Read more