President-elect Trump is claiming that he can abolish birthright citizenship, seeking to strip citizenship from 7 million or more Americans who are children of undocumented immigrants.
This has been a long-time demand of right-wing anti-immigrant individuals and organizations, such as Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, former Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce (best known as the sponsor of Arizona’s anti-immigrant SB1070 law) and anti-immigrant organizations such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).
San José, CA – With just one day to go before the federal government runs out of funding, President-elect Donald Trump, with the help of billionaire Elon Musk, derailed a bipartisan agreement to keep the government running through March. This plan would have also added billions of dollars in disaster relief aid to help pay for the damage from hurricanes Helene and Milton earlier this year.
San José, CA – On Friday, December 6, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the survey of households showed that the unemployment rate for November 2024 increased to 4.2%, from 4.1% in October. This continued the trend of higher unemployment since bottoming out in April of 2023 at 3.4%.
San José, CA – On Wednesday, November 13, the Department of Labor’s monthly report on inflation showed that the increase in the Consumer Price Index, or CPI, ticked to 2.6% measured on a year-to-year basis, which smooths out monthly spikes or plunges. The so-called “core” rate of inflation, which leaves out food and energy prices (which tend to vary more than other prices month to month), was an even higher 3.3% measured year over year.
San José, CA – On Friday, November 1, the Department of Labor published its report on new job creation and unemployment for October. While the unemployment rate showed little change, the report on net new job creation came in far below what was expected and was the lowest number since the recession year of 2020.
San José, CA – On Friday, September 13, the Biden administration announced a further escalation of the U.S. trade war with China. Tariffs—taxes on imports—of electric cars from China will be increased to 100%. This is meant to protect legacy U.S. auto makers from competition from Chinese electric vehicle or EV manufactures.
San José, CA – On Wednesday, August 21, the U.S. Department of Labor released an initial estimate reducing the number of net new jobs created from April 2023 to March 2024 by 818,000, or about 28%. This is the biggest adjustment since 2009, the year after the Great Financial Crisis. The adjustment was about five times as big as previous years’ adjustments.
San José, CA – The decline in U.S. stock prices accelerated on Monday, August 5, with the broadest measure of large corporate stocks, the S&P 500, falling more than 160 points or 3%. Fears of a recession contributed to declines in stock prices around the world.
San José, CA – The latest jobs report released Friday, August 2, triggered new fears of a recession as the official unemployment rate rose to 4.3%. This pushes the three-month average unemployment rate up by more than one-half of one percent from its recent low. An increase of this size has been associated with a recession for the last 50 years.
San José, CA – On Monday, July 15, Donald Trump was officially nominated as the Republican Party candidate for president. Given his lead, albeit slim, in the polls over President Biden, it would be wise to look at Trump’s economic policies.
A central part of Trump’s economic plans is to raise tariffs, or taxes on imports. He is calling for 10% across the board and 60% for imports from China. Trump proudly calls himself “Tariff Man” and holds up President William McKinley as a role model for raising tariffs. McKinley was congressperson and president who was a strong advocate for tariffs in the late 1900s.
San José, CA – On Thursday, July 18, the weekly report on unemployment insurance showed 243,000 new claims for the week ending July 13. This was 20,000 higher than the previous week.
San José, CA – On Thursday, July 11, the Department of Labor released the most popular measure of consumer prices, showing inflation continues to decline. The overall Consumer Price Index or CPI actually declined by 0.1% in June as compared to May. The year-over-year rise, from June 2023 to June 2024 was 3%. This was the lowest inflation rate in more than three years.
San José, CA – On Friday, July 5, the Department of Labor released its monthly employment report for the month of June. While mainstream news sources such as the Associated Press described the labor market as “healthy” the report was riddled with warning signs of a weaker jobs market.
San José, CA – The February 2024 employment report released by the Department of Labor on Friday, March 8 continued to show signs of weakness. While total job creation seemed healthy, with 275,000 net new jobs reported by the survey of employers, there were significant downsides to the overall report.
San José, CA – The January 2024 jobs report was labeled “Blockbuster” by the New York Times, “Hot” by the Wall Street Journal, and “Shockingly Strong” by the Washington Post. Yet the headlines of three of the national newspapers failed to capture the weaker side of the report.
San José, CA – On Tuesday, September 12, the U.S. Census Bureau reported on income, poverty and health insurance coverage in 2022. The report on poverty was dire, with the poverty rate as measured by the Supplemental Poverty Measure, or SPM, jumping almost 60% between 2021 and 2022.
San José, CA – On Friday, September 1, the Department of Labor’s report on the job market in August showed continued signs of cooling. Only 187,000 net new jobs were created, and the Labor Department adjusted down the new jobs for June and July by 130,000. This meant that the three month average was only 150,000 new jobs. In contrast, in the first three months of the year, employment grew on average by 312,000 jobs, so that the rate of job creation has been cut in half.
San José, CA – On Friday, May 19, Republicans walked out of debt ceiling negotiations with the Democrats. Presidential candidate Donald Trump followed with a no-compromise stance, saying the Republicans should hold out for “everything that they want.” More than a quarter of Democrat Senators who are opposed to the Republican cuts called on President Biden to overrule the debt ceiling using the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees that the national debt shall be paid.
San José, CA – After the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, headquartered in the city of Santa Clara, just north of San José, the local news was full of interviews with technology entrepreneurs talking about the “importance to the community” to have all of the uninsured depositors get their money back. With the closing of Signature Bank in New York, which had large numbers of crypto-investment related depositors, over the weekend, federal regulators tried and failed to find buyers for the two banks. This made these two banks the biggest ever – with about $200 and $100 billion in deposits, respectively – to have to shut down.
Cracks appear in economy as government regulators shut down Silicon Valley bank
San José, CA – Cracks in economy began to show up as Silicon Valley Bank, based in Santa Clara, California, just north of San José, was shut down on Friday, March 10. The bank was the 18th largest bank in the United States, and mainly served high-tech startups, venture capitalists and wealthy individuals.
