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Dollar Tree can't keep up with Bidenflation, changing consumer habits, and competition from other discount retailers — and will close nearly 1,000 of its Family Dollar locations around the country. The company announced the move this week following disappointing quarterly results ... "struggling to deal with a shift in consumer spending to lower-margin essentials from higher-margin discretionary products ... Even discount items .. are now out of reach for many Americans who have shifted their buying habits to even "lower-margin essentials" like food and gas. The mainstream media keeps telling me the economy is booming, but Family Dollar can't cut...

Without so much as a whisper of pushback from Congress, the White House is bulldozing forward with a regulatory proposal that could cost the average household up to $10,000 extra in water costs. But it’s not only President Joe Biden‘s campaign that is scared of this latest forefront of the president’s green agenda — Biden’s own Pentagon is panicking over the proposal. The World Health Organization now recommends that governments limit polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS or “forever plastics” that are resistant to breaking down in either the environment or the human body, at a level of 100 parts...

The average annual percentage rate (APR) on credit cards nearly doubled to 22.8 percent in 2023 from 12.9 percent in 2013, costing consumers around $25 billion in interest fees last year, according to a new analysis by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The average APR hit the highest level on record at the end of last year, according to the bureau’s analysis of data from the Federal Reserve, which started tracking it in 1994. The surge in the overall average APR comes as credit card debt has hit an all time high. U.S. credit card debt topped $1.1 trillion...

Etsy’s employee costs have grown even as gross merchandise sales have been near flat, CEO says.. Etsy Inc. shares fell more than 7% in Wednesday trading to place among the S&P 500 index’s biggest laggards after the e-commerce company announced layoff plans. The company intended to cut about 11% of its staff, or roughly 225 employees, as it embarks on a broader restructuring. ... We are operating in a very challenging macro and competitive environment, and [gross merchandise sales] has remained essentially flat since 2021. This means we are not bringing our sellers more sales, which is the single most...

But just because an economic system generated wealth and innovation doesn’t mean it guarantees a good society," Obama said. "Because from the outset, market-based systems have been compatible with slavery, caste systems, colonialization, war, exploration, corruption, fraud, autocracy, the poisoning of our natural environment." As Obama listed, the audience applauded. The former president went on to credit Democratic governments for "moderating capitalism's excesses" with a "social safety net." According to him, it will take "young leaders to help us think and act anew" about "creating an economic system that supports and sustains our democratic values."

Comments made on 11/1/23.

O’Charley’s is not alone, judging by the spate of chain restaurant closures this year. Boston Market has closed at least two-dozen stores; Applebee’s is planning dozens of closures; Qdoba intends to shrink by as much as 1.5% annually; and Veggie Grill has closed 40% of its locations in recent months. But O’Charley’s struggles predate even today’s harsh environment. From 2017 to 2022, systemwide sales fell 34%, and unit count declined by nearly a third, according to data from Technomic.

The Federal Reserve is watching July’s jobs report carefully. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the US economy added 187k jobs in July, less than the expected 200k. US average hourly earnings continued at 4.4% year-over-year (YoY). However, the last core inflation reading was 4.8% YoY, so real wages continue to decline. Rent CPI for June was 7.8% YoY. Here is the rest of the story. In keeping in with Biden admin’s penchant of constantly fabricating data, both May and June numbers were revised sharply lower of course: May revised down by 25,000, from +306,000 to +281,000 June...

Yellow Corp., a 99-year-old trucking company that was once a dominant player in its field, halted operations Sunday and will lay off all 30,000 of its workers. The unionized company has been in a battle with the Teamsters union, which represents about 22,000 drivers and dock workers at the company. Just a week ago the union canceled a threatened strike that had been prompted by the company failing to contribute to its pension and health insurance plans. The union granted the company an extra month to make the required payments. But by midweek last week, the company had stopped picking...

Ford Motor said Thursday pushed back production targets for its electric vehicles, citing slower-than-expected adoption. Ford now expects to be building EVs at a rate of 600,000 per year sometime during 2024, a delay from earlier estimates that it would reach that level by the end of 2023. The automaker had previously targeted a rate of more than 2 million per year by the end of 2026, but now says it doesn't know when it'll achieve that volume. "The transition to EVs is happening, it just may take a little longer," CFO John Lawler said following the automaker's second-quarter earnings...

Trucking giant Yellow collapsed on Sunday, ceasing operations immediately and leaving some 30,000 workers without jobs. The closure is the biggest in terms of jobs and revenue in the U.S. trucking industry, according to The Wall Street Journal - which first reported its shutdown. The company, which received $700 million in federal COVID relief funds in 2020, is preparing to file for bankruptcy and is in talks to sell off all or parts of the business. The nearly 100-year-old firm is known for its competitive pricing and has more than 12,000 trucks shipping freight across the US for brands including...

After 127 years in business, San Francisco's Anchor Brewing Company is shutting down. According to a press release, the brewery has been facing challenging economic factors and declining sales since 2016. "This was an extremely difficult decision that Anchor reached only after many months of careful evaluation," Anchor Brewing spokesperson Sam Singer said. "We recognize the importance and historic significance of Anchor to San Francisco and to the craft brewing industry, but the impacts of the pandemic, inflation, especially in San Francisco, and a highly competitive market left the company with no option but to make this sad decision to...

The stories are everywhere: Walmart store closures in Portland and Chicago; an epidemic of drug store thefts in New York. In Baltimore, a “landmark” grocery store shuts its doors after nearly 25 years in a community desperate for fresh food. While in San Francisco, reports of big-box chains abandoning its downtown have become near-daily occurrences. The cause: rampant, often organized, and seemingly consequenceless shoplifting. Indeed, the US is deep in what many are calling an epidemic of thefts that cost retailers nearly $100 billion in 2021. And this epidemic is impacting both the bottom lines and operational strategies of massive...

OAKLAND, Calif. - Vandals sliced through thick cables at an Oakland electric vehicle charging station, leaving drivers powerless. Nearly a dozen charging cables are missing from the EVgo charging station at 409 Washington Street near Jack London Square. The chargers have been out of commission for at least a week.

The problem of rampant shoplifting at San Francisco drug stores, grocery stores and retail stores has become obvious to everyone at this point. And yet, as Beege noticed this morning on Twitter, you still have reports like this one from NBC News about the “perception of crime,” as if the crime isn’t real, it’s just a misperception.In a report for NBC on the closing of San Francisco's Westfield Mall, correspondent Miguel Almaguer claims it's merely the "perception of crime" as the reason the mall is closing. pic.twitter.com/uzg1eoYng7— Kevin Tober (@KevinTober94) June 14, 2023It is fair to say that violent crime...

Cancer centers are contending with shortages of key chemotherapy drugs, with potentially dire consequences once the scarcity starts hitting patients. A new survey released this week by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) found that 93 percent of cancer centers are reporting shortages of carboplatin and 70 percent are reporting shortages of cisplatin. These two drugs are commonly used together to treat a wide variety of cancers — including breast, lung, prostate and many types of leukemias — often with the aim of curing them.

Student-loan payments are resuming this year. It's likely going to hurt not just borrowers, but the entire US economy. In March 2020, former President Donald Trump first implemented the student-loan payment pause to give borrowers financial relief during the pandemic. Trump and President Joe Biden since extended it multiple times - Biden in November most recently extended the relief through 60 days after June 30, or 60 days after the Supreme Court issues a final decision on the legality of the president' plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt for federal borrowers, whichever happens first. And the most...

Biden has a line on you! And it isn’t good. More like we are fish being caught and eaten by Washington DC bureaucrats. Another example of Biden’s dismal economy. US pending home sales plunged -22.6% YoY in April. Even worse, REAL weekly wage growth has been negative for 23 straight months! What I like about the Biden/Yellen economy? Nothing!!

Can’t move, won’t move. That’s increasingly the approach of Americans who are in the market for a new job. The share of job seekers who relocated to take up a new position fell to 1.6%, the lowest level on record, in the first quarter of 2023, according to a quarterly survey that’s been carried out by executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. for decades. Behind the shift in attitudes lies a post-pandemic surge in remote and hybrid positions, which has made it possible for more workers to stay where they’re living even as they change jobs. What’s more,...

President Biden vetoed a bipartisan resolution Tuesday that would have reversed his executive action last year ordering the Department of Commerce not to enforce tariffs on Chinese solar panel manufacturers for two years.