San José, CA – Average weekly earnings, adjusted for inflation, fell in July despite a drop in inflation. While average hourly wages outpaced inflation by one-tenth of one percent, or 0.1% ,in July, the average work week fell by three-tenths of one percent, or 0.3%. This meant the average weekly real earnings, which takes into account wage increases, inflation and the average number of hours worked, actually fell by two-tenths of one percent, 0.2%.

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 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 Francisco, CA – On November 11, close to 900 people gathered at San Francisco State University for a counter-summit against the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit later that week.

The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum will be meeting in San Francisco and progressives need to be there on Saturday, November 11 and Sunday, November 12.

Freedom Road Socialist Organization opposes APEC as a tool of imperialist exploitation, and stands in solidarity with those planning to protest this meeting, such as the People's Counter-Summit being organized by the No to APEC Coalition.

Interview with Professor of Economics Masao Suzuki

In 2023, there have been many announcements of layoffs by technology firms. This is a result of what the media calls post-COVID normalization. But this “normalization” has also shown that many technology companies that boomed during the pandemic were in fact overproducing and building new capacity too quickly, forcing them now to scale back. In the past ten days this slowdown in the technology industry spilled over into the banking system, triggered by the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, based in Santa Clara, California. Soon after the failure of SVB on Friday, March 10, regulators shut Signature Bank in New York. First Republic bank, headquartered in San Francisco, had to borrow $30 billion from other banks, under the direction of the Federal Reserve. The crisis even spilled overseas, as the troubled Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse was forced to sell itself to the even larger Swiss bank UBS. Fight Back! News sat down with Professor Suzuki to ask him about this crisis. Fight Back!: How is the failure of Silicon Valley Bank related the crisis unfolding in the technology industry?

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.

San José, CA – On Friday, November 4, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the unemployment rate in October rose from 3.7% from 3.5% in September. The increase was even larger for Asian Americans and Latinos, who saw their unemployment rates rise by 0.4%, twice the overall rise.