Top Economic News - Oct. 7-11, 2019

Economics impacts us all daily. Below are last week’s news highlights with links to relevant articles.

• Consumer credit increased $17.9 billion or at an annual rate of 5.2% in August, according to a report published by the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.  This is down from 6.2% in July.
  
  
• What’s the biggest risk in doing global business? Reuters published a survey on Tuesday compiled by the World Economic Forum that highlighted the biggest differences in the views of the biggest risks.
  
  
• Backlash in China stemming from a tweet from Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey in support of Hong Kong’s protestors has caused a clash between the NBA and China. The Wall Street Journal ($) takes a look the power struggle and how the basketball association is strongly positioned to push back.  
   
• The United States has become more dependent on trade, according to Indicator from Planet Money, a podcast on NPR, recently took a look at the evolving relationship between the United States and Global Economy.
  
  
• Retirees will get a 1.6 percent cost-of-living increase in social security beginning in 2020, according to this story from the Associated Press. However, seniors and advocates complain that the increase doesn’t compare with the increase in inflation.
  
  
• Many middle-class Americans are taking out car loans longer than ever, according to a story in The Wall Street Journal ($). Inexpensive and generous financing is putting the American middle-class in debt with seven-year car loans.