US Economy - News, Updates and Discussion

[Watandar]

Just filled up my car's tank yesterday, a little over 15 gallons at a cost of $73. Before this foolish war, it cost $39 to fill my tank. I have a fuel efficient mid size SUV that gets 25 mph city/33 highway. If I am feeling a pinch from gas prices, imagine what all the people driving gas guzzling trucks and SUV's must be feeling!

I have been noticing the grocery bills going up too.

Final kicker is the rates for loans!! I went to get a loan from the bank for a project, despite excellent credit the interest rate exceeds 7%! The US economy and a LOT weighing it down right now.

 

[j_hungary]

The highER fuel cost was the final nail in Spirit's coffin. Whether Spirit's collapse was inevitable or not was speculative, and I will grant you that. But if Spirit got all those problems, then maybe we should look at those problems rather than higher fuel costs which affects all airlines.

Dude, Higher fuel costs ARE THE problem. We aren't talking about a flag carrier or even a leisure carrier; we are talking about LCCs (Low Cost Carriers) and ULCCs (Ultra Low Cost Carriers). Their business model is basically low cost per mile, which means there are only 2 things that affect it: pax and fuel. You can raise their ancillary revenue all you want, but can you compensate for the loss of passengers because of the border policy and then 170% fuel cost? The point that you raise will not sustain you as a low-cost carrier anymore.

Yes, I am. The AI expansion is making the semicon industry going into overtime. Have you checked the consumer level PC components' prices lately?

How many people work with Semicon industry and AI? And how many people are the one that buying the "inflated PC components"?

Also, you are not better off; you are pulling even because we have an inflation rate that goes upward to the general inflation, which in April is 3.8 (Which again, is very dubious as the energy inflation is up 17.9%, you literally need all other to go down 9% (as in -9%) to have a CPI at 3.8%...) and we all know this is not what happened.

No. Just the ones who maybe on the cusp of reaching nuclear weapons state status.

As you said, you don't know, we don't know, and I am inside the intel circle.

But I do know one thing, Trump said Iranian nuclear capability is completely demolished in the July 2025 strike, so if they are once again on the cusp of being a nuclear power, that means either he was lying then, or he is lying now.

On the other hand, you do know Iran doesn't need to develop nuclear weapons by itself to be nuclear-armed, right? If Russia or China wants to **** with us, they would have and could have transferred nuclear technology for military use to Iran, the same as we have with the UK and the AUKUS pact. How are you going to stop it then? Sure, pumping fuel price up 70% for the Chinese would make them not think of doing that...

Plus, it's pointless to talk about this anyway; the only way you can stop Iranian nuclear development is basically for us to go in and take that fuel and search the whole country for more, as we did in Iraq. We aren't going to do that, especially not with Allied Support.

Personally...

I do not support the current US war against Iran. I believe there are better alternatives. That said. I will NOT say that if I was in Trump's shoes, I would do A, B, C, etc...Because if I was in Dump's shoes, I would do the exact things. Putting one's self in someone's virtual shoes is among the stupidest arguments in the world because if I am in his position, I would be facing the same constraints and/or options that resulted in the original decision in the first place. If I was in Clump's shoes, I would have the same intellect, character, moral foundation, and weaknesses as he does. Ergo, I would make the same decision -- war against Iran.

But I am not Donald Trump and not in his position. In the same vein, I do not have access to the level of intel and advisors that he does.

If your country's military is inferior to the US military in every way, then do not threaten US. Simple as that.

The problem is, Trump should not have been in Trump's shoes to begin with; this is all wrong on any type of level. As I said, you don't need a team of NSA people to know you don't go to war with Iran without solving the Strait of Hormuz first. The entire thing of over 2300 ships getting stuck in the Gulf should not have happened to begin with; anyone sitting in their seat, no matter what they do that leads to this, is stupid. You don't need a flag officer to even tell you that.

Secondly, are we actually winning in Iran? Sure, we defeated their military, then what? Remind me, when I was in Afghanistan, we defeated the Taliban, again, then what? We aren't in 3rd or 4th generation warfare anymore. If "your country's military is inferior," then Ukraine should have folded a long time ago, and we would have won in Afghanistan. The level of measuring military might by physical strength is long gone. In this day and age, raw power amounts to nothing, will to fight ranks higher than that, and do ask yourself this question: Would Americans have the same stomach to fight as the Iranians?

Fight is alright, fighting dumb is not. That's the whole point.

 

[Davey Crockett]

 

[AZ_HighCountry]

Just filled up my car's tank yesterday, a little over 15 gallons at a cost of $73. Before this foolish war, it cost $39 to fill my tank. I have a fuel efficient mid size SUV that gets 25 mph city/33 highway. If I am feeling a pinch from gas prices, imagine what all the people driving gas guzzling trucks and SUV's must be feeling!

I have been noticing the grocery bills going up too.

Final kicker is the rates for loans!! I went to get a loan from the bank for a project, despite excellent credit the interest rate exceeds 7%! The US economy and a LOT weighing it down right now.

Harsh reality, isn't it in spite of what some of the "all things MAGA" crowd are saying. And all of those costs are being seen now downstream at places like the grocery store, etc.

We are finally getting started on the new house. And yes, interest rates on the construction loan are a concern.

 

[Davey Crockett]

 

[Davey Crockett]

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MTA Chairman Janno Lieber said LIRR "gave the union everything they said they wanted in terms of pay," and that to him it was apparent the unions always intended to walk out.

In fact, we detailed in August 2025 a comprehensive "Color Revolution: A Strategic Assessment (2025-2028)," outlining how left-wing unions and NGOs were planning "coordinated, targeted, and nonviolent strategic action such as national strikes and boycotts, large-scale disruption to economic activity and civil society, and other forms of mass political defiance designed to damage a government's legitimacy, authority, and capacity."

The rail strike threatens major disruption for roughly 270,000 daily riders and could cost the region an estimated $61 million in lost economic activity per day.

The labor action will likely backfire because LIRR riders are mostly middle-class, and the shutdown of the transportation network will hurt working households the most.

Limited shuttle bus service is planned beginning Monday, but capacity will cover only a fraction of normal ridership.

This is the first strike on the LIRR since 1994, and the timing could not be worse, as commuting across the service area will be a nightmare come Monday morning. This is also unfolding in a state controlled by unhinged Democrats, alongside a socialist mayor in NYC.

Lefty Union Paralyzes Long Island Rail Road As Strike Sets Commuter Chaos Countdown For Monday<!-- --> | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

 

[Davey Crockett]

As the MTA grapples with the LIRR strike, it also needs to contend with the TWU Local 100, the union representing nearly 40,000 New York City Transit employees who keep the subways and buses running.

The MTA and Local 100 held a two-hour bargaining session early Friday to negotiate a new contract; the current collective bargaining agreement expires on Saturday. The union has yet to announce any potential job actions.

LIRR STRIKE: Talks break down, and 300,000 commuters now stranded as railroad employees hit picket line | amNewYork

Some 300,000 daily commuters who rely on the LIRR in New York City, Nassau and Suffolk Counties now need to find an alternate way to get around, or scrap

www.amny.com

 

[Davey Crockett]

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[Davey Crockett]

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[东风夜放花千树]

Parts of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Wisconsin, diesel went up to $5.99/gallon this morning.

View attachment 195544

View attachment 195545

I saw some Americans saying that their hourly wage is only $8-10. Such high prices have seriously affected basic living needs like food and housing.

The United States is an oil-producing country, and the government should control the price increases caused by energy capital. This would be beneficial for Trump's midterm elections.

 

[东风夜放花千树]

I don't know how much you know about the economy.

First of all, the elephant in the room is that Spirit's collapse is directly attributed to High gas prices; namely, if the war does not happen, it probably will not collapse. There may be other things that contribute to its demise; it could have been bad management, bad capital flow, reduced ridership, but the direct cause is the high jet fuel price. This is like I am a 65-year-old fat guy, I have Cholesterol up to 130, I am a walking timebomb and can crook any minutes, if I get hit by a car and died, that's my direct cause of death, sure, I may not be able to live for another 2 to 3 years, but that does not mean the car crash did not kill me because I am going to die anyway.

Secondly, JetBlue won't save them, seeing that they fly basically the same destinations as Spirit. In a business merger, you sometimes merge to get a better market, you sometimes merge to get a better cashflow, and you sometimes merge to increase operational requirment (like how Facebook acquire Instagram to open to the line of social media) In JetBlue/Spirit case, this is a hostile merger, JetBlue is not merging with Spirit to save it, it merge with Spirit to force it out of business, because they are literally running the same business, and as a market competitior, and there are only 3 LCC (discounting Allegiant because it's of low market cap, and it does not really do communter travel) in the US, JetBlue, Frontier and Spirit, for JetBlue to merge with Spirit, it basically take over the entire LCC market (which had 54% of US air travel according to Statista) for JetBlue to merge with Spirit, the only things that does is that they will cease operation then, there are no way JetBlue will cover the resource of Spirit had they went ahead again, because they both flew the same destination. All you do is basically make it collapse in November 2024 instead of May 2026




The problem, again, is how many people are negatively affected by this, versus how many people are benefitted from this. How many people do you know that are getting better because of what Trump put us through in Iran? I am a middle-income background, a factory owner, and a farmer. I know roughly 2000 people in the US none of them say they are better off now, and a bunch of those people are farmer, so you know they voted for Trump, I know a bunch of factory owner and worker who are suffering from this due to high fuel price, I myself suffer from this, due to high fuel price, and for Farmer, they are even worse off, you first losing those contract of Soybean and Maze to China because of the tariff, and then now you are talking about planting season in the US with 3 times the fuel cost, and if Farmer suffer, where do you think their food they grow goes to?

It's a wide sentiment that people are A LOT worse off than it was before, I don't know anyone that are in the middle to high income bracket that are better off than it was before. And I am not talking about before 2025, I was talking about before Feb 2026. You may know a few billionaires, I don't know, but if you ask around, you will know this war is making people pay a hefty price for literally no reason at all.

Bringing in NAFTA and USMCA or whatever treaty to highlight the downside of Globalism does not negate the negative BS effect of elitism we are suffering now. I mean, are you better off now than you were before Feb 2026? I don't care about what happened in 1994 or 2017; I don't live in 1994 or 2017; I live in the time period of now.


So, your solution is to bomb the crap out of these people because they have a national directive to pledge death to America? Dude, do you know how many countries out there hate us? Do you know how many countries out there want to see us go? Should we go invade and bomb them all?

This is just like Trolling, the only way you deal with trolling is to ignore them, they can chant death to America for all I care, I care about whether or not I will survive if I go back and live in the US, sure, if you attack us, that's over the line, but as I said, the world is not just having the biggest dick win.

Please answer a question.

In China, many people believe that American farmers are different from Chinese farmers. They think American farmers own large amounts of land and use mechanized work.

Is this true?

 

[东风夜放花千树]

Just filled up my car's tank yesterday, a little over 15 gallons at a cost of $73. Before this foolish war, it cost $39 to fill my tank. I have a fuel efficient mid size SUV that gets 25 mph city/33 highway. If I am feeling a pinch from gas prices, imagine what all the people driving gas guzzling trucks and SUV's must be feeling!

I have been noticing the grocery bills going up too.

Final kicker is the rates for loans!! I went to get a loan from the bank for a project, despite excellent credit the interest rate exceeds 7%! The US economy and a LOT weighing it down right now.

Please answer a question.

Can you tell me how long the interest calculation period is for loans in the United States?

I mean, is the interest on this loan calculated annually or monthly?

 

[AZ_HighCountry]

Winning!

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I've been seeing it at Walmart for awhile now.

 

[Watandar]

Please answer a question.

Can you tell me how long the interest calculation period is for loans in the United States?

I mean, is the interest on this loan calculated annually or monthly?

APR is always annual rate.

 

[j_hungary]

Please answer a question.

In China, many people believe that American farmers are different from Chinese farmers. They think American farmers own large amounts of land and use mechanized work.

Is this true?

It depends.

There are a few different types of farmers in the US: Corporate, Co-Op, and Family Farm.

Corporate ususally own their own land, while Co-Op usually leases fields to farm, Family can be both.

If by "Mechanized" you mean we use a tractor and other machinery instead of using horse drawn/ox drawn cart to plough, sow, and harvest, then yes. I don't know any farmer did not own tractors. But if by "Mechanized" you mean automated farming like they did in Europe, then no, a lot of manual labor is involved in American farms.