Month: November 2017

Neither the House or Senate tax plans will meaningfully boost long-run economic growth, but both will substantially boost future deficits and debt. Despite lower corporate taxes, growth will be stymied by a full employment economy, resulting in higher inflation and…

The yield spread between 10-yr and 1-yr Treasuries has shrunk from a post-recession peak of 3.4 percentage points to just 0.70 percentage points. The problem is in prior Fed rate rising cycles, the yield on the 10-yr rose as faster…

The personal savings rate fell to just 3.1% in September, its lowest level since 12/07, the start of the Great Recession. The decline is undoubtedly being caused by record gains in household net worth. As a percent of disposable income,…

By all indications, Mexico just recently entered a recession. Business activity, sales growth, business confidence and industrial production are not only all declining but are in contractionary territory. Worse, equities are down 8% after peaking three months ago and GDP…

The Friday File: After tweeting/retweeting about 200 times/month in January and February, President Trump’s tweeting fell to a low of 150 in April. Since then, he has upped his game. In July, President Trump’s tweets hit 400 for the first…

This year, the average cost of a full Thanksgiving dinner for 10 persons is $49.12; 75 cents or 1.5% lower than last year, 3% lower inflation-adjusted, and the lowest inflation-adjusted price since 2010. The priciest inflation-adjusted Thanksgiving repast was $62.40…

Last year, 2.6 million Americans died. Of those, 5,219 had estates large enough, greater than $5.49 million/person, to pay estate tax. Doubling the exempted amount to $11 million/person, which the Senate proposes, would reduce the number of taxable estates to…

While housing starts in October rose 13.7% compared to September, they remain 2.9% below the level of 10/16, and are up just 5.8% YTD. Technically, it’s because multifamily activity is down roughly 10% YTD. That’s because multifamily activity has returned…

The Friday File: Earlier this week, the “Salvator Mundi” by Da Vinci sold at auction for $400 million, $450 million including fees. This shatters the prior auction price high of $179 million set in 2015 for Picaso’s “Les Femmes d’Alger”,…

With the median house value in the US at $205,000, capping the mortgage interest deduction on loan principal eligible for the deduction to $500,000 from the current $1,000,000 would impact just 5% of home owners. Moreover, just 6.7% of the…