trendsjournal.com – History Before It Happens

December 19, 2023

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RISING INSURANCE COSTS ARE MAKING HOMES EVEN LESS AFFORDABLE

Record-high home prices are not the only things making it harder to buy a home these days.

TOP TREND 2025: THE TRUMP CARD

Incoming U.S. president Donald Trump’s promise to pile stiff tariffs on all goods imported into the U.S. will, if carried out, crimp the world’s economic growth, according to a large majority of the more than 220 economists in the Eurozone, U.K., and U.S. surveyed by the Financial Times.

U.S. FACTORY ACTIVITY RISES TO NINE-MONTH HIGH IN DECEMBER

U.S. factories produced more and received more new orders in December as the Institute for Supply Management’s purchasing managers index (PMI) climbed to its highest level since last March.

EUROPE’S AUTO INDUSTRY SUPPLY CHAIN IS BLEEDING JOBS

Job losses doubled in 2024 to more than 30,000 among European companies supplying automakers with parts and components, data from the European Association of Automotive Suppliers shows.

IDF TROOPS ADVANCE DEEPER IN SYRIA…ALL IN THE NAME OF SECURITY!

Israeli forces are making themselves at home in Syria after last month’s swift fall of Bashar al-Assad, and—after staking claim to new land in the country, have expanded their land grab to include the city of Quneitra, which is further into Syria and shares a border with the Golan Heights.

ECONOMIC UPDATE—MARKET OVERVIEW

On the economic side of life in America, for Wall Street, the mood is upbeat and we forecast it will remain so for the next few months as Donald Trump takes over the White House. But, of course, there is no relationship between Wall Street and Main Street.

VOLKSWAGEN, UNIONS REACH COMPROMISE TO KEEP PLANTS OPEN

After Volkswagen threatened to close as many as three German plants and dump “tens of thousands” of workers, the company and Germany’s largest union worked through 70 hours of dickering and produced a deal that promises to maintain an uneasy labor peace in the short term.

HOME SALES ROSE IN NOVEMBER BUT SLUMPED IN DECEMBER

U.S. pending home sales—contracts signed for purchases—increased in November for the fourth consecutive month, rising to a level not seen since early 2023, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported.

NAKBA 2.0: ISRAEL UPROOTS GAZANS FROM NORTH AND MOVES THEM TO KILLING FIELD IN SOUTH

Israeli forces—backed fully by the U.S.—continued their ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza last week and pushed Palestinians to the southern region of the enclave—forcing them to leave without their belongings, despite the cold winter months ahead.

U.S. INTENSIFIES ATTACKS ON THE HOUTHIS FOR DEFENDING GAZANS

The United States military announced last week that it intensified airstrikes in Yemen to punish the Houthis for standing up to Israel during its genocide in Gaza.

CONSUMER CONFIDENCE SLIPPED IN DECEMBER

Last month, consumer confidence in the economy in 2025 fell unexpectedly, according to The Conference Board’s monthly survey.

SPOTLIGHT: CHINA’S ECONOMIC PLAN

Beijing will issue three trillion yuan—about $411 billion—in treasury bonds this year, with the proceeds directed to spark consumer spending, speed technological innovation, and recapitalize government-owned banks, Reuters reported.

AS FORECAST: TECH WARFARE TAKES HOLD IN UKRAINE AS INFANTRY GET REPLACED BY DRONES

The Ukraine War started as a conflict where Russian and Ukrainian troops would exchange fire on the frontlines, with the use of heavy artillery to help soften the enemy.

IDF OCCUPIES VITAL SYRIAN DAM, NOW CONTROLS 30 PERCENT OF COUNTRY’S WATER SUPPLY

The Israeli government reportedly seized control of much of the Syrian water supply after taking over the al-Manara Dam, in the eastern part of the country located inside the newly occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

TOP TREND 2025: DRAGFLATION

Britain’s economy failed to grow in 2024’s third quarter, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) has estimated, and the Bank of England projects that the GDP remained flat in the year’s final three months.

FED OFFICIAL FORECASTS PRODUCTIVITY BOOM, THANKS TO AI

As a young economist in the late 1990s at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Mary Daly identified factors that soon led to a surge in U.S. economic productivity.

ECONOMIC UPDATE—MARKET OVERVIEW

IS IT OVER FOR THE STOCK MARKET? FIVE FACTORS IN PLAY

History may not repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme. And when it comes to the financial markets, cycles do more or less repeat.

TOP TREND 2025: DRAGFLATION

A NATURAL APPROACH TO WELLNESS

Glutathione is gaining wider recognition as a super antioxidant. Future Market Insights recently reported that the glutathione supplement market is projected to rise to over half a billion in the next 10 years.

U.S. President Joe Biden In Washington, DC

BIDEN SENDING ANOTHER $8B ARMS DEAL FOR ISRAEL TO KEEP ITS GENOCIDE GOING

The Biden administration alerted Congress “informally” of a proposed $8 billion arms deal for Israel to support Tel Aviv’s “long-term security by resupplying stocks of critical munitions and air defense capabilities,” Axios reported, citing unnamed sources.

Elderly, Masked Woman Rolling Up Her Sleeve To Get A Coronavirus Vaccine Shot

SCIENTIFIC STUDY: GET COVID JAB, GET CANCER

Forget about the cancer risks that supposedly come with having a glass of beer, a new study on the COVID-19 vaccines that governments mandated suggests that those who took the jab could have higher risks of developing cancer.

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Global Economy

SPOTLIGHT: BIGS GETTING BIGGER

Members of the Nordstrom family, with help from Mexican conglomerate El Puerto de Liverpool, are buying all outstanding shares of the department store chain for about $6.25 billion in cash and taking the 123-year-old retailer private.

SPOTLIGHT: CHINA’S ECONOMIC PLAN

CANADIAN BUSINESS BANKRUPTCIES SET THIRD-QUARTER RECORD

In last year’s third quarter, 1,312 Canadian businesses went bust, the most in any year’s third quarter, the Financial Post reported.

The Israel War

Dam On Lake Qaraoun In The Bekaa Valley, Lebanon

IDF OCCUPIES VITAL SYRIAN DAM, NOW CONTROLS 30 PERCENT OF COUNTRY’S WATER SUPPLY

Smoke Rises After Israeli Air Strikes Near The Border

GAZA DEATH TOLL

At least 45,885 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the Israeli genocide in Gaza and 109,196 have been wounded—including about one-third who have had life-changing injuries.

BIDEN SENDING ANOTHER $8B ARMS DEAL FOR ISRAEL TO KEEP ITS GENOCIDE GOING

AI

NEXT VERSION OF CHAT-GPT WILL COST “BILLIONS” TO BUILD, CFO SAYS

The greatest barrier to a new, more powerful version of OpenAI’s iconic Chat-GPT is not technical but financial, CFO Sarah Friar said in a Bloomberg interview.

SOFTBANK TEASES $100 MILLION INVESTMENT IN U.S. AI BY 2029

Softbank, Japan’s venture capital colossus, has slated a $100-million investment in the U.S. AI industry on hopes that the incoming Trump administration will accelerate the industry’s growth and dissemination.