Month: January 2017

The Fed will leave interest rates unchanged at the meeting that ends tomorrow. And, I expect no rate rise in March. However, should the Fed raise rates then, it would imply that the Fed wants to raise rates more frequently…

Q4 GDP came in at 1.9% and CY2016 GDP growth was a weak 1.6%! While the details of each quarterly report change — this time household spending was up 2.5%, business investment rose a welcome 2.4%, while exports subtracted 1.7…

The Friday File: While better quality jeans undoubtedly use better materials, fit better and are handmade, there’s a limit. At $4,000/pair, APO Jeans are the world’s 4th most expensive. At $10,000 a pair, Escade holds third place. In second, is…

In 2001, tobacco firms sold 413 billion cigarettes in the US and total revenue was $71 billion, or 17.2 cents/cigarette. By 2015, consumption had declined to 269 billion cigarettes, but due to rising prices and taxes, revenue had increased to…

After peaking at 40.8 million in 2007, the number of tax returns claiming the mortgage interest deduction has steadily fallen, and as of 2013, the latest year from which data is available, stands at just 33.3 million. Not surprisingly, the…

In 2015, single-family starts totaled 713,000 and in 2016, 783,000, up 9.8%. Remaining housing starts fell from 395,000 to 385,000. Overall, starts rose from 1.108 million to 1.168 million. Multifamily has recovered, but single-family starts remain at recessionary lows 7.5…

With unemployment very low at 4.7%, substantial fiscal stimulus will simply drive up wages and inflation, forcing the Fed to increase rates prematurely. Thus, Trump and Congress should focus on expanding the economy’s productive capacity, not increasing household consumption. This…

The Friday File: The average cost of raising a baby born in 2015 through age 17 for a middle-income married-couple is $233,610. Housing is the costliest single item, accounting for 29% of all spending, followed by food at 18% and…

Total undergraduate and graduate student enrollment in the US this past September was 19 million. Registration peaked in 2011 at 20.6 million. Matriculation at public four-year schools was 8.1 million, 5.7 million at public two-year schools, and 3.8 million at…

Healthcare spending totaled $3.2 trillion in 2015, up 5.8% from 2014, well above the rate of inflation, and now accounts for a dizzying 17.8% of GDP! However, it’s high-cost patients that drive these costs. The most expensive 1% of patients…