2024Q1 GDP Increased Per Advance Estimate

2024Q1 GDP Increased. Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 1.6 percent in the first quarter of 2024, according to the “advance” estimate. In the fourth quarter of 2023, real GDP increased 3.4 percent. This is the first of three readings for first quarter GDP. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)

US Raw Steel Production Down from Previous Week

In the week ending April 20, 2024, US raw steel production was 1,716,000 net tons at an ACUR of 77.3 percent. The weeks production represents a 3.0 percent decrease from one year ago when the ACUR was 78.6 percent. Production for the week is down 0.6 percent from the previous week ending April 13, 2024.

CFNAI Increased in March

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) increased to +0.15 in March from +0.09 in February. Two of the four broad categories of indicators used to construct the index increased from February, and two categories made positive contributions in March. The index’s three-month moving average (CFNAI-MA3), increased to -0.19 in March from -0.28 in February.

News Headlines

The anti-Semitic unrest continues on our university campuses. These are all organized protests. If you notice the encampments, the tents are all the same, save the color. Who bought them? Who distributed them? According to an editorial in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday:

Every senior Hamas leader has also acknowledged the importance of the protests and said that influencing US and Western policy is part of the organization’s strategy for destroying Israel. Khaled Mashal, the Hamas leader abroad, on October 10 urged supporters “to protest in cities everywhere.” On October 31, he said that the organiztions friends “on the global left” were responding to its appeal. On March 27, he called for millions to take to the streets in protest, saying there had been an unprecedented shift in global public opinion.

On October 7, Hamas leader and former Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh alluded to this on Al Jazeera TV. He exhorted the “resistance abroad,” “strategic allies and muslims worldwide-all “partners in creating this great victory”-to “join this battle any way they can.”

Six months after the attack on Israel, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and others aren’t merely cheering those protesting in the streets. They are working with and grooming activists through meetings, online interviews and podcasts.

The collaboration between senior terrorists and their growing list of friends in the US and the West has real world consequences. These groups are designated terrorist for a reason. They don’t plan marches and rallies-they carry out terrorist attacks. And when the US and Western activists, including college students, see that their marches and protests aren’t achieving their goals, they may consider their next steps-which ill be influenced by the company they have been keeping.” And now you know…

I am offering a warning to all Americans: we are in a very dangerous place right now, we are being overrun by illegal migrants, burning the US flag has become commonplace, violent and other crime is running rampant, and there is no accountability of the criminal perpetrators. Many in our country hate the United States, what she stands for, the good she has done for the world. Yet, our Constitution protects these idiots, and their right to protest. As a patriotic American citizen, I find it offensive and out of order. What we have here is anarchy, and it seems the idiot in the Oval Office doesn’t give a crap, so the unrest continues, unabated.

“KEEP AMERICA GREAT”

Have a great weekend…. God bless America!

Buy American made products whenever you can, it’s good for you, good for your friends and neighbors and good for our country.

If you are hiring…try to hire a veteran…. they are loyal, disciplined, hardworking…and they deserve our support.

By the way, if you wish to comment on my rants or offer any other insights you may have, you are encouraged to email me.

TEDDY ROOSEVELT ON IMMIGRANTS IN AMERICA…1907

In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person’s becoming in every facet an American and nothing but an American. There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag…We have room for but one language here and that is the English language…and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.”