Home sales slowed again in September, having the weakest level of sales in 14 years with prices up 49% over a 5-year period versus income growth of approximately 25%. This disparity continues to climb. It appears that Vice President Harris has a good idea to build 3 million homes. Whether it’s practical or not, we’ll have to wait and see.
Liberals in Canada are asking President Trudeau not to run for a 4th Term. He must call elections no later than October of 25.
The US and the IMF disagree on China’s massive trade surplus. The US believes that China is holding down costs and offers subsidies for exports hurting its trading partners by dumping goods below at below their cost. China’s GDP has fallen versus the world’s GDP by about 2%. This is an ongoing issue with China and is also impacted by its currency manipulation. All in all, China is a tough trade partner to have.
Jobless claims declined from 242,000 to 227,000 last week with continuing claims dropping about 28,000.
Elon Musk worked as an illegal immigrant while in the US as a student. Now, he is vehemently opposed to immigrants working in the US. Just a little bit of hypocrisy.
Trump has lost 10 court cases in States that will likely decide the elections as he attempts to limit voting and change the rules. Fortunately, the Courts have rejected these attempts by he and his colleagues.
Medicaid aids 73 million Americans, primarily the elderly and disabled. Mr. Trump and his Project 25 group would like to cut its funding dramatically. Clearly, they are out to help those less fortunate.
Migrants paid billions in taxes for which they get no benefits, Social Security being the primary beneficiary, as ours falsely claim that immigrants get substantial benefits. They don’t. Do ours really want to solve the migrant crisis, particularly in Texas? The answer appears to be no. They get too much political benefit from it which is one of the reasons why they were susceptible to Mr. Trump’s killing of the comprise legislation that was put forward by a group of bi-partisan senators.
Flood insurance is run by the National Flood Insurance Program and funds 1.3 trillion of coverage, but the real problem is that when the premium payments don’t cover the cost, they take money from the treasury, which means in effect, all of us are paying for the few who have properties that are subject to flooding and obviously hurricane damage. We need to look at this more carefully.
Bill Owens is a former member of Congress representing the New York 21st, a partner in Stafford, Owens, Piller, Murnane, Kelleher and Trombley in Plattsburgh, NY and a Strategic Advisor at Dentons to Washington, DC.
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