America

Authored by Patrick Buchanan via Buchanan.org,

For two years, this writer has been consumed by two subjects.

First, the presidency of Richard Nixon, in whose White House I served from its first day to its last, covered in my new book, “Nixon’s White House Wars: The Battles That Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever.”

The second has been the astonishing campaign of Donald Trump and his first 100-plus days as president.

In many ways, the two men could not have been more different.

Two weeks after we reported that the consumer credit card default rate as tracked by S&P/Experian Bankcard had surged to the highest level since June 2013...

... we were looking forward to the latest Fed Senior Loan officer survey for more details about changing loan dynamics within US society.

What the report revealed was troubling: while on the surface, the Loan Officer Survey characterized loans to businesses as "basically unchanged" from the previous survey, it did remark that standards for commercial real estate (CRE) loans had tightened.

Tracking the disappointing, and downward revised March jobs report, when as a reminder the US added only 79,000 jobs, today's JOLTS report showed a decidedly more benign labor market in the month of March, with good news on the job openings front, offset by another month of hiring weakness.

We've noted several times in recent months that, despite the 'economic recovery', a record number of young 'adults' are moving back home with mom and dad after college and staying there well into their 30's. 

Authored by John Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

“When the rivers and air are polluted, when families and nations are at war, when homeless wanderers fill the highways, these are the traditional signs of a dark age.” - Pema Chodron, When Things Fall Apart

Those coming of age today will face some of the greatest obstacles ever encountered by young people.