(OPINION) If you believe the corporate media, the U.S. economy is doing absolutely great as we start to roll through the second half of 2023. Even though inflation is out of control, the commercial real estate market is in free fall, corporate bankruptcies are surging, and large businesses all over America are conducting mass layoffs, we are being told that everything is just peachy.
For example, the following comes from a recent NPR article entitled “What recession? It’s a summer of splurging, profits and girl power”… The numbers are in and things look surprisingly rosy for the U.S. economy:
The Federal Reserve is still cautious, but big brands – including Coca-Cola, Hilton and Visa — are singing praises to shoppers seemingly undeterred by companies’ raising prices.
What’s more, Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Barbie are enticing people to part with their money, bolstering local businesses. Yes, “girl power” is supposedly saving the U.S. economy.
Doesn’t that sound wonderful? Unfortunately, it just isn’t true. Here are 10 signs that the mainstream media is not telling you the truth about the economy…
#1 When the economy is doing well, there is a tremendous demand for trucking. But when the economy is tanking, trucking companies often get into serious trouble. So it is a very bad sign that “one of the country’s oldest and largest trucking businesses” is literally on the brink of collapse…
Yellow, one of the country’s oldest and largest trucking businesses, is preparing to file for bankruptcy and may collapse within days, leaving some 30,000 workers without jobs.
The nearly 100-year-old company is known for its competitive pricing and has more than 12,000 trucks shipping freight across the US for brands including Walmart and Home Depot.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the company is preparing to file for bankruptcy and is in the process of selling off other parts of the business.
#2 You can add Anheuser-Busch to the rapidly growing list of large companies that are conducting mass layoffs…
Anheuser-Busch, the parent company of Bud Light, announced it will lay off 350 employees, many of them in corporate positions, as it seeks to recover from the fallout over a campaign involving a trans influencer.
#3 The number of large corporate debt defaults so far this year has already exceeded the grand total for the entire year of 2022…
The total amount of corporate debt defaults in the United States this year have already exceeded the amount seen in 2022. Experts have been warning of a wave of defaults to hit the economy for some time due to higher borrowing rates.
At least fifty-five American-based companies defaulted on their loans in the first half of 2023, according to data from Moody’s Investors Services.
That is a 53 percent increase from the total number of defaults last year, when just 36 companies said they would fail to repay their debt obligations to lenders.
#4 The cost of living continues to soar. CNBC is reporting that vehicle repair costs have risen by nearly 20 percent over the past 12 months…
Car repair costs are up almost 20% in the past year, according to the consumer price index — more than six times the national inflation rate and among the largest annual price increases of any household good or service. So, what’s driving up prices?
It’s a combination of factors, experts said. Some emerged in the pandemic era while others are longer-term trends in the auto market, they said.
#5 More than three-quarters of a million households in the state of California are behind on their rent, and now it appears that a tsunami of mass evictions is coming…
More than 768,000 households are behind on rent in the Golden State, with debts totaling more than $5 billion, putting approximately 721,000 children at risk of eviction, according to the National Equity Atlas–a collaborative data and analytics tool founded by Oakland-based Policy Link and the University of Southern California Equity Research Institute.
Residents in the City of Los Angeles are facing a deadline of Aug. 1 to repay all rental debt accrued between March 2020 and September 2021, with that from October 2021 to January 31, 2023, due by February 2024.
#6 Electric vehicles were supposed to be the wave of the future, but Ford is going to lose 4.5 billion dollars on electric vehicles this year alone…
Ford Motor Company announced it is projected to lose a whopping $4.5 billion from electric vehicles (EVs) this year, up from the previous projected loss of $3 billion.
The company released its second-quarter financial results on Thursday. The U.S.-based automaker’s EV division, called “Ford Model e,” has lost $1.8 billion so far this year, according to Fortune. READ MORE
