Archive for November 2014

Abe Lincoln signed a Presidential Proclamation declaring Thanksgiving the last Thursday in November starting in 1863. After lobbying by the Retail Dry Goods Association, FDR proclaimed Thanksgiving to be next to last Thursday in November 1939/1940/1941 to lengthen the holiday shopping season. Eventually, a compromise was reached, and since 1942, Thanksgiving has been observed on…

With Q3 GDP growth just revised up to 3.9% and Q2 GDP growth at 4.6%, the last six months have been the best stretch of GDP growth in over a decade. But year-over-year growth is still just 2.4%, compensation growth was revised down to 3.5% from 4% in Q3 and from 5.3% to 2.8% in…

As China’s economy slows, many are overly complacent and point to $4 trillion in foreign reserves that can always be spent to cushion any downturn. The problem is repatriating those funds would mean selling US Dollars and buying Chinese Yuan. That would raise the value of the Yuan and hurt exports. The primary reason the…

The Friday File: 77% of all revenue from recorded music goes to the top 1% of bands and solo artists. The 10 best-selling tracks now generate 82% more sales than 10 years ago, while the top 10 songs receive twice the airtime today than in 2004. Seven of the 10 most popular songs of all-time…

While the rest of the planet economically cools or worse, goes into reverse, today’s data shows that the US economy is doing well. First-time weekly claims for unemployment insurance fell and are remarkably low, existing home sales rose 1.5% and are at their highest level of the year, the Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index hit its…

The annual FY14 FHA audit finds that it went from having net worth of negative $1.1 billion to positive $4.8 billion and now has a capital reserve of 0.41%, or a leverage ratio of 243! Because of this “success” some now suggest reducing the FHA annual mortgage premium from 1.35%. Lowering it will not only…