United States

As the Ulji Freedom Guardian joint military drills begin near the Korean Peninsula, North Korea's Kim has threatened "merciless revenge" against the "US Imperialists and South Korean war maniacs" for ignoring his warnings. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency reports that:

The US imperialists and the South Korean war maniacs launched the Ulji Freedom Guardian joint military drills aimed at a preemptive attack on the DPRK.

 

By Mark Hanson Of M Hanson Advisers

Bottom Line: House prices and end-user, shelter-buyer fundamentals have never been further apart in key, economically significant cities.

The two charts presented in this note highlight just how diverged house prices have become from end-user, shelter-buyer, employment and income fundamentals in the most populated, economically significant US cities.

We’ve all heard that globalization lifts all boats and increases our prosperity …

But mainstream economists and organizations are now starting to say that globalization increases inequality.

The National Bureau of Economic Research – the largest economics research organization in the United States, with many Nobel economists and Chairmen of the Council of Economic Advisers as members –  published,  a report in May finding:

Recent globalization trends have increased U.S. inequality by disproportionately raising top incomes.

 

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Cue the latest economic (and Phillips curve) paradox.

On one hand, the US unemployment rate is at a 16 year low of 4.4%, suggesting little if any slack in the US economy, and according to anecdotes from both the Fed's Beige Book and industry sources, labor shortages are so acute that - if one believes the recently discussed report from the NAHB - up to 75% of builders are unable to find construction workers.

With much of the US undergoing a broad revulsion against Confederate statues in the days since the Charlotesville clashes, it was only a matter of time before someone took matters one step too far. This happened today when a Houston man was arrested on allegations he tried to plant explosives at the statue of Confederate officer Richard Dowling in Hermann Park, according to Chron.com citing law enforcement officials.