KeNo's Housing and Economic Portal: Friday November 11 20916 Housing and Economic stories

Thursday, November 10, 2016

Friday November 11 20916 Housing and Economic stories

Government Workers Now Outnumber Manufacturing Workers by 9977000 - (www.cnsnews.com) Government employment grew from 22,216,000 in September to 22,235,000 in October, according to BLS, while manufacturing jobs dropped from 12,267,000 to 12,258,000. The 22,235,000 employed by government in the United States now outnumber the 12,258,000 employed in manufacturing by 9,977,000. Over the past year—from October 2015 to October 2016—manufacturing employment fell by 53,000, declining from 12,311,000 to 12,258,000. During the same period, government employment climbed 208,000, rising from 22,027,000 to 22,235,000.

Valeant Crashes To 17 Year Lows After Warning Of "More Surprises" - (www.zerohedge.com) The last few weeks have been a wild ride for Valeant shareholders but this morning's comments that the firm "is confident in its forecasts but there may be more surprises" has spooked investors, compounding the fact that the firm missed expectations with sales plunging 11%, and cut its sales and profit forecast for the year. VRX shares are down almost 30% in the pre-market - the lowest since Dec 1999.

This is How Consumers Turn into Debt Slaves - (www.wolfstreet.com) Consumer debt rose by $19.3 billion in September to $3.71 trillion, another record in a five-year series of records, the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors reported on Monday. Consumer debt is up 6% from a year ago, at a time when wages are barely creeping up and when consumer spending rose only 2.4% over the same period. This follows the elegant principle of borrowing ever more to produce smaller and smaller gains in spending and economic growth. Which is a highly sustainable economic model with enormous future potential, according to the Fed. Consumer debt – the Fed uses “consumer credit,” which is the same thing but sounds a lot less onerous – includes student loans, auto loans, and revolving credit, such as credit cards and lines of credit. But it does not include mortgages. And that borrowing binge looks like this:

PRODUCER PRICE SHOCK: Starved of coal, China steel mills opt for output cuts - (www.reuters.com) Stunned by soaring raw material costs, some Chinese steel mills have cut output and even started maintenance works earlier than usual as state-enforced mine closures continue to choke off the supply of key production ingredients, coke and coking coal. Prices of coke and coking coal, that typically account for 20 percent of steel production costs, have rallied more than two-fold this year amid Beijing's big push to curb overcapacity and pollution, hurting profits for mills. Blast furnaces in the world's top producer and consumer of steel are as a result operating at their lowest rate in about four months, data from industry consultancy Custeel.com shows, in contrast to earlier this year when robust demand and prices prompted mills to operate at nearly full capacity.

EXCLUSIVE: FINRA Sanctions Firm Connected To The Clintons - (www.dailycaller.com) A consulting firm with close and controversial ties to the Clintons was recently sanctioned by the Financial Industry Regulatory Agency (FINRA) for failing to properly handle electronic communications, documents reviewed by The Daily Caller show. Teneo Securities was censured and forced to pay a $17,500 fine for the infraction, which was settled on Sept. 7. That’s according to a broker check report filed on the firm, which is a subsidiary of Teneo Holdings, a consulting firm founded by longtime Bill Clinton aide Doug Band and a former Hillary Clinton campaign financier named Declan Kelly.

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