One of the fastest-growing industries in the world and one of the most exciting to get into right now is the marijuana industry. Hundreds of businesses are opening their physical, or virtual doors, each day. However, this doesn’t mean that entering the marijuana industry is easy, and it doesn’t mean that doing well in the […]
The post How to Grow as a Marijuana Business appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.
“Intuition is the whisper of the soul.” ~Jiddu Krishnamurti
“I can’t believe they are taking her side over mine. I gave this job so many years, and she decides to walk in and mess it all up for me,” I …
The post Making Big Decisions: How to Discern the Whispers of Soul appeared first on Tiny Buddha.
“I saw my little Una… so full of spirit and life that she was life itself. And then I looked at my poor dying mother, and seemed to see the whole of human existence at once, standing in the dusty midst of it.”
Jack Nekhala & Michael Nusinkis, Creators of the Bed Scrunchie that solves that annoying loose fitted sheet problem or and makes your bed look like a hotel joins eCommerce Radio.
The post Bed Scrunchie, solving that annoying loose fitted sheet problem appeared first on Enterprise Podcast Network – EPN.
As we all know, the last two years have been very interesting. As someone that consults and advises leaders around the world, to say that I have been busy is an understatement. When the global pandemic started, I was getting contacted by leaders from all over the world as they faced great uncertainty about the […]
First-time claims for unemployment insurance were little changed over the past week, indicating the heightened pace of layoffs during the pandemic may have hit a plateau, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
Initial filings for the week ended Nov. 13, totaled 268,000, a decline of 1,000 from a week ago and slightly higher than the Dow Jones estimate for 260,000.
The total was the lowest since the beginning of the pandemic but in close keeping with where claims have been over the past month.
The four-week moving average, which smooths out weekly volatility, declined to 272,750, just a bit above the total for the most recent weekly count.
Continuing claims, which run a week behind the headline number, declined by 129,000 to 2.08 million, also a pandemic-era low dating back to March 14, 2020.
Though the totals for regular and continuing claims showed declines, trailing numbers for those receiving benefits under all programs increased sharply for data through Oct. 30. That total rose by 618,804 to 3.185 million.
Special pandemic-related emergency programs ended in most places in September, but the total for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program in particular soared from the Oct. 23 to Oct. 30, rising 537,467.
The Labor Department did not provide an explanation for the big surge in pandemic-related filings.
A separate report Thursday brought some strong news for manufacturing and more signs of inflation.
The Philadelphia Federal Reserve’s gauge of monthly activity in the sector jumped 15 points to 39, representing the percentage differential between companies reporting expansion and contraction. That was well above the Dow Jones estimate for 23, propelled by increases in employment and prices paid and received.
There’s this whole status-quo in the business world about “self made”, but honestly what the heck does that even mean? For years I let myself secretly relish in the satisfaction of “doing it all myself” or “on my own” somehow thinking that meant I was guaranteed success, and the glamorous title of “self-made”. Recently, my […]
Jonathan Davis, Co-Founder and CCO of Uberbinder™, a low carbon replacement binder for concrete and asphalt with a mission to change transportation infrastructure using sustainable building material joins the Green Business Podcast.
The post Jonathan Davis, Co-Founder and CCO of Uberbinder™: Initial steps to a sustainable future appeared first on Enterprise Podcast Network – EPN.
Rising mortgage interest rates continue to take their toll on demand, especially in the refinance market. Total mortgage application volume fell 2.8% last week compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($548,250 or less) increased to 3.20% from 3.16%, with points rising to 0.43 from 0.34 (including the origination fee) for loans with a 20% down payment.
As a result, refinance demand fell 5% for the week and was 31% lower than the same week one year ago. Refinance applications have dropped in seven of the past eight weeks. The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 62.9% of total applications from 63.5% the previous week.
“Activity has been particularly sensitive to rate movements, and last week’s decline was driven by a drop in conventional and FHA refinance applications, which offset an increase in VA refinance applications.” said Joel Kan, MBA’s associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting.
Mortgage applications to purchase a home, which are less sensitive to weekly rate moves, rose 2% for the week but were 6% lower than the same week one year ago. Buyers appear to be coming back to the market after a brief lull. Builders reported strong buyer traffic in a sentiment report out this week from the National Association of Home Builders.
“Purchase applications increased for both conventional and government loan segments, as housing demand continues to show resiliency at a time – late fall – when home buying activity typically slows. The second straight increase in purchase applications suggests that stronger sales activity may continue in the weeks to come,” said Kan.
Mortgage rates continued to move higher to start this week and are now at the highest level in more than three weeks. Rates were influenced Tuesday by a report on October’s retail sales, which rose by 1.7%, making it the strongest month in several years.
“In general, strong economic data puts upward pressure on rates. Economists were only expecting a 1.4% increase after last month’s 0.8% improvement,” said Matthew Graham, chief operating officer at Mortgage News Daily.
A breakdown of the latest U.S. data indicates that inflation is confined to certain sectors and will not pose a threat to the recovery, according to Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics.
U.S. CPI inflation came in at an annual 6.2% in October, its steepest climb for more than 30 years.
Energy, shelter and vehicle costs led the gains, which more than wiped out the wage increases that workers received for the month.
The persistent high inflation and continuation of pressures such as supply chain bottlenecks have led many economists to question the Federal Reserve’s long-held view that the spike will be “transitory.”
However, stronger-than-expected October retail sales and industrial production figures this week have indicated that the broader economic recovery may well be on track, even as inflation drives prices skyward.
Weinberg told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Wednesday that with industrial output and GDP back to pre-pandemic levels, the U.S. economy has essentially recovered. He argued that the labor market lagging is “typical for economic recessions,” with unemployment following the 2008 global financial crisis taking around a decade to fully recover.
That said, November’s jobs report indicated that the labor market was now gathering steam, with nonfarm payrolls increasing by 531,000 in October and driving the unemployment rate down to 4.6%.
“We have a problem related to specific sectors of the economy, not the economy overall. I was surprised to read those industrial production and manufacturing numbers, but they are what they are, and we are doing it now with 5 million fewer people working than before the pandemic, so this tells us that productivity ought to be up by maybe 3% or more compared to then,” Weinberg said.
He suggested that the market needs to keep productivity gains in mind when looking at wage increases, which are “tolerable with steady, stable prices as long as they are offset by productivity gains.”
Citing High Frequency Economics’ aggregation of data across the component sectors within the CPI reading, Weinberg estimated that around one third are falling while half are growing at less than 2%, which he argued “is not inflation.”
“The rise of selected categories, scattered categories of products within CPIs are making those averages of the basket price move higher, but that doesn’t mean that all prices are moving higher along with all wages,” Weinberg said.
“Inflation is a process of spiraling wages and prices, it is not a one-time event, an off-time shock to prices coming from an understandable supply shock.”
Weinberg cited Milton Friedman to make the case that Fed intervention based on these individual pockets of spiking inflation would likely do “more harm than good.” He also highlighted comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell and Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey, both of whom have suggested that tightening policy in response to inflation resulting from temporary supply shocks would be counterproductive.
“Let’s not be influenced by hysterical people like Larry Summers, who are telling us that inflation is taking off. Let’s listen to what the people who actually are making policy are telling us,” Weinberg said.
Summers was contacted for comment by CNBC. The former U.S. Treasury secretary has in recent weeks called on the Fed and the Biden administration to tackle rising inflation, and argued that the “transitory” label had run its course.
Despite having long advocated for more expansionary fiscal and monetary policy, Summers, now president emeritus of Harvard University, said in a Washington Post op-ed earlier this week that he had changed his view in the face of the evidence. He also challenged the notion that inflation was confined to just a few sectors.
“In October, prices for commodity goods outside of food and energy rose at more than a 12 percent annual rate,” Summers said.
“Various Federal Reserve system indexes that exclude sectors with extreme price movements are now at record highs.”
