By Robert Romano

A combined, unadjusted 1.56 million Americans came off of unemployment continued insurance claims the weeks of August 1 and August 8, according to the latest data by the Department of Labor as the U.S. economy continues a rapid recovery almost nobody but President Donald Trump was predicting.

Since the week ending May 9, unadjusted continuing unemployment claims have dropped from 22.8 million to now 14.26 million, a decrease of 8.5 million.

The biggest state gains the week of August 8 were in California, with more than 118,000 coming off of continued claims, 114,000 in Michigan, 103,000 in Nevada, 96,000 in Texas and almost 81,000 in Florida.

Overall, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ household survey, a record 10.1 million jobs have been added back to the economy in just three months after labor markets bottomed in April.

With the latest readings from the Department of Labor, with millions more Americans coming off of unemployment benefits down to 14.26 million — 16.3 million were said to be unemployed in July — we might expect to see a couple million more jobs recovered in August.

This not only portends very well for the next monthly jobs report due out on Sept. 4, it is far and away the fastest economic recovery in American history. Consider, in the Obama economy, labor markets bottomed in Dec. 2009 and then it would take almost 5 years for 8 million jobs lost in the financial crisis and the Great Recession to be recovered.

In contrast, in the Trump economy, more than 10 million jobs have already been recovered in just three months, with millions more expected in the next reports as coronavirus daily new cases have stabilized for now before they are expected to increase again in the fall when the cold and flu season begins again. Still, this is unbelievable momentum.

It speaks to the strength of the U.S. economy and labor markets before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, when we were at a 50-year low in unemployment at just 3.5 percent, but also the foresight and wisdom of the Trump administration and Congress to put into place economic supports. That particularly includesthe payroll protection plan for 5.2 million small businesses that were saved because decisive action was taken early in the pandemic.

Now, a V-shaped recovery in labor markets is clearly forming. After a gargantuan 32.9 percent pandemic contraction in the second quarter, when the third quarter Gross Domestic Product is reported on Oct. 29 right before the election, expect a record double-digit recovery.

Almost nobody but President Donald Trump thought this could happen. On March 25, the President confidently predicted, “I don’t think it’s going to end up being such a rough patch.  I think it’s going to, when we open — especially, if we can open it — the sooner, the better — it’s going to open up like a rocket ship.  I think it’s going to go very good and very quickly.”

Turns out, President Trump was exactly right. And as millions more Americans return to work, he will have a strong case to make this fall politically that his leadership was instrumental in not only saving hundreds of thousands of lives from the virus, but in making this rapid recovery possible.

Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government.  

To view online: http://dailytorch.com/2020/08/1-56-million-americans-come-off-unemployment-continued-claims-in-two-weeks-as-rapid-recovery-trump-predicted-continues/

Fannie, Freddie 0.5 percent mortgage refi fee will kill refi market

Aug. 20, 2020, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today blasted a new 0.5 percent “adverse impact” fee to be assessed on all mortgage refinances starting Sept. 1:

“At a time when it can already cost thousands of dollars in closing costs to refinance a mortgage, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two dinosaur quasi-government giants have decided to implement an ‘adverse impact’ fee of 0.5 percent on all refinances.  President Trump and Federal Housing Finance Agency head Dr. Mark Calabria should be all over the leaders of these two institutions right now over this decision to try to dry up the refinancing market at a time when it is federal government policy to pump as much money into the economy as possible with record-low interest rates to overcome the devastating impacts of the Chinese-originated virus. 

“Through this new 0.5 percent tax on home refinances, Fannie and Freddie effectively are saying that they should collect a significant fee on every refinance taking that money directly out of the pockets of homeowners who are seeking to lower their mortgage costs or pulling some of the dead money out of their homes to use for whatever purposes they deem important.  Apparently Fannie and Freddie thinks that it is better for the Treasury to keep pouring money out that America doesn’t have, rather than allowing people to fully take advantage of the equity in their homes.  While to the multi-millionaires who run Fannie and Freddie, a new bureaucratically imposed $500 tax for every $100,000 refinanced may not seem like much, it actually is the difference for many of whether a refinance makes sense at all. This will kill, at least a portion of the market for mortgage refis.

“According to research firm Equilar and quoted by the Washington Post, ‘At Fannie Mae, five executives earned more than $2 million each last year, while four executives at Freddie Mac earned more than $3 million.’  It seems that a few of these multi-million dollar employees should be out of work due to this outrageous bureaucrat imposed tax increase that will effectively make some people to choose not to access their own money that is within the equity of their own homes.”

To view online: https://getliberty.org/2020/08/fannie-freddie-0-5-percent-mortgage-refi-fee-will-kill-refi-market/