Weekly Economic Snapshot 7/16 - 7/20

Economic Facts for This Week

• Since taking over as acting director of the CFPB, Mick Mulvaney has worked hard to undermine consumer rights. Find a timeline of his devastating actions here.
• By the end of 2025, the top 1 percent of taxpayers will have received nearly $2 trillion in tax cuts from the Bush and Trump tax cuts.
• In June, inflation hit its highest level since 2012. Even excluding the more volatile food and energy prices, “core” inflation has now been over 2 percent for four consecutive months. While these levels are not particularly concerning in themselves, the GOP’s tax cuts and the Trump administration’s ever-expanding trade war are likely to further fuel inflation.
• Economists at the San Francisco Fed suggest that the tax cut was so badly timed that it will add to the debt without generating any extra growth. On average, Americans in the future won’t have gained anything from the tax cut, but they will have to repay that debt with interest.

Chart of the Week

In the wake of the Republican tax cuts, taxes on corporate profits are at historic lows. Congressional Republicans and the Trump administration promised that this historic tax cut would lead to large wage gains for working families. In June, though, the average hourly wage was unchanged from a year prior, after adjusting for inflation. For production and nonsupervisory workers (a good proxy for the median worker), wages were actually lower in June than a year prior. Meanwhile, U.S. public companies announced $437 billion in share buybacks in the second quarter, shattering the record they set in the first quarter.

ICYMI

• Trump’s trade war will increase living costs for American households.
• Where workers live affects how much they earn. A new tool from the Hamilton Project shows how much different jobs pay in different parts of the country.
• Students from lower income families are less likely to attend college, and more likely to attend nonselective schools or enter less than bachelor’s degree programs when they do attend.

Coming This Week

• Monday 8:30am: Retail Sales (for June): https://www.census.gov/retail/marts/www/marts_current.pdf

• Wednesday 8:30am: New Residential Construction (for June): https://www.census.gov/construction/nrc/index.html

• Friday 10:00am: State Unemployment (for June): https://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.nr0.htm