Lumber Wipes Out 2021 Gain With Demand Ebbing After Record Boom
(Bloomberg) -- Lumber, which at one point was among the world’s best-performing commodities as the pandemic sent construction demand soaring and stoked fears of inflation, has officially wiped out all of its staggering gains for the year.Prices at Monday’s close are now down 0.6% for the year as demand eases and supply expands in response to earlier gains. The rally turned a common building product into a social media sensation and a flash point in the debate over U.S. monetary policy. At one po
Coffee Prices Soar After Bad Harvests and Insatiable Demand
The rises threaten to drive up costs at the breakfast table as the world’s biggest coffee producer, Brazil, faces one of its worst droughts in almost a century.
More competition: Biden signs order targeting big business
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Friday targeting what he labeled anticompetitive practices in tech, health care and other parts of the economy, declaring it would fortify an American ideal “that true capitalism depends on fair and open competition."
Genuine Progress Indicator - Gross National Happiness USA
Genuine Progress Indicator takes into account the well-being of a nation by incorporating environmental and social factors which are not measured by GDP.
Every day, millions of tons of goods pass through ports to get to their end consumers. Here are the world's busiest ports, and how numbers have changed.
Is the Michigan vaccine lottery working? Depends how you define success. | Bridge Michigan
Since Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced a $5 million lottery pool for those getting the COVID-19 vaccine, she’s touted that 1 million have signed up for the lottery — but the state cannot say if it’s luring more people to the shots. Several local health officials say it hasn’t.
‘Should We Sell?’ After Collapse, Hot Florida Market Faces Uncertainty
The partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Fla., has plunged older beachside condos and high-rise buildings like it into a swirl of apprehension.
If we want to understand the economic effects of socialism, North Korea is a good place to start because we can compare it to South Korea. But how do we stud...
We Study Billionaires - The Investor’s Podcast Network
We interview and study famous financial billionaires including Warren Buffett and Howard Marks, and teach you what we learn and how you can apply their investment strategies in the stock market.
U.S. job growth surges most in 10 months, jumping past forecast
U.S. job growth accelerated in June, with payrolls gaining the most in 10 months, suggesting firms are having greater success recruiting workers to keep pace with the broadening of economic activity.Nonfarm payrolls increased by 850,000 last month and the unemployment rate edged up to 5.9 percent,…
Rising pay in other industries blows holes in health care's workforce
Beaumont Health has more than 2,600 open positions across its eight hospitals and more than 165 outpatient centers. Roughly 5 percent of those positions fall under one job — medical assistant.A medical assistant performs relatively routine tasks, such as filling out insurance forms,…
Michigan businesses weather lockdowns, surge of interest in great outdoors
Restrictions on most indoor activities during the COVID-19 pandemic turned our entire society inside out — literally. Parks, campgrounds and secluded short-term rentals filled up. Bicycles, roller skates and RVs sold out. Michigan businesses have dealt with pandemic-enforced restrictions and…
An Economist Discusses Central Bank Digital Currencies | St. Louis Fed
In short videos, a St. Louis Fed economist answered questions on central bank digital currencies, including about possible effects on privacy and bank lending.
Fed Unity Cracks as Inflation Rises and Officials Debate Future
Federal Reserve officials are debating what to do as price risks loom, even as its leaders and the White House say today’s surge will most likely cool.
Real GDP growth in the United States came in at an annualized 6.4% in the first quarter. The Fed now estimates 7% GDP growth for all of 2021.That would be the highest level of growth since 1984.
U.S. Housing Prices Jump the Most in More Than Three Decades
(Bloomberg) -- U.S. home prices jumped the most in more than 30 years in April.Nationally, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index of property values climbed 14.6% from a year earlier, according to a statement Tuesday, the biggest gain in data going back to 1988. That came after 13.2% increase in March, and was the 11th straight month that price gains accelerated.Home prices in 20 U.S. cities, meanwhile, jumped 14.9%, beating the median estimate in a survey of Bloomberg economists and was the bigge
Michigan Democrat seeks labor law inspired by Art Van demise
The collapse of a local furniture chain helped prompt an effort by a lawmaker to make Michigan only the second state to guarantee severance to workers who lose their jobs when their employer scales down or closes its doors altogether.
Jerry Bridges looks at his books and sees black, but nothing else about the numbers over the past year-and-a-half are normal.There's never been so many people looking for an RV or fifth wheel at Lloyd Bridges Traveland in Chelsea. Even so, sales volume is down 40 percent from last year."I can't get…
Photos: How a resurgence in skating has rolled out across metro Detroit
It's not your imagination: Everyone is suddenly skating. As COVID-19 public health measures restricted indoor activities, outdoor recreation flourished, and people explored new ways of safely getting beyond their four walls and moving their bodies for physical and mental wellness.
Seems skating has gotten an extra boost, too, from TikTok and Instagram, where reels of neat tricks set to peppy music have inspired people to lace up some skates for the first time — or for the first time in a while. (That is, if they can find a pair: The Wall Street Journal reported in March that the roller skate supply chain is one of many that's been kinked up by a surge in demand.)
Local skate parks, which have proliferated in recent years, have been bustling. We sent photographer Nic Antaya to some area skating hot spots to capture the view of the world on four wheels. It's a study of motion, merriment and crowds in public spaces again, in the best way.
This story is part of a special report on Michigan's outdoor economy.
— Amy Elliott Bragg
