Welcome to Thunderdome

TheCatt wrote: Median income by state.

I'll be honest. Seeing NC as 13th worse is a little bit surprising to me. Ohio 4 spots better.

GORDON wrote: I picture lobbyists using "donations" to make it rain all over middle aged, white politicians, while the politicians gyrate on the pole.

Tax money then gets rained upon whatever the lobbyist was buying.

Leisher wrote:Bob Iger is definitely one who gets a pass in my book. Is any company kicking ass like Disney currently is?

TheCatt wrote: 25-pt rate cut form Trump the Fed.

TheCatt wrote:

TheCatt wrote: 25-pt rate cut form Trump the Fed.

Fed says there's no firm plans to do more cuts. Stonks get sad and drop 1%

How households earning $61,000 can acquire cars costing half their gross income is a story of the financialization of the economy. Some 85% of new cars in the first quarter of this year were financed, including leases, according to Experian. That is up from 76% in the first quarter of 2009.

And 32% of new-car loans were for six to seven years. A decade ago, only 12% were that long. The shorter-term loans of the past gave many owners several years of driving without car payments.

Now, a third of new car buyers roll debt from their old loans into a new one. That’s up from roughly 25% in the years before the financial crisis. The average amount rolled into the new loan is just over $5,000, according to Edmunds, an auto-industry research firm.

WASHINGTON—President Trump said the U.S. would impose an additional tariff of 10% on $300 billion in Chinese goods and products beginning on Sept. 1, after trade talks this week failed to yield any significant results.

In a series of tweets, Mr. Trump, who received a briefing from his trade team Thursday, said that negotiators still planned to resume their discussions, as scheduled, next month, and expressed his interest in reaching “a comprehensive Trade Deal” with China.

However, he said that China’s promise to increase its purchase of U.S. agricultural products, as well as its promise to stop the sale of fentanyl to the U.S. have fallen short.

“China agreed to...buy agricultural products from the U.S. in large quantities, but did not do so,” he said. “Additionally, my friend President Xi said that he would stop the sale of Fentanyl to the United States—this never happened, and many Americans continue to die.”

Unlike previous rounds of tariffs, which have focused largely on industrial goods, the $300 billion tranche is set to include a host of consumer products, from electronics and cellphones to apparel.

Vince wrote: I'd read somewhere (maybe even here somewhere) that businesses are putting the brakes on a lot of plans because Trump's been so erratic with trade policies. It's the same thing that happened under Obama with environmental policies. A lot of businesses that had to deal with the EPA just went into a holding pattern.