Archive for September 2020

The number of ex-servicepersons in the US is 18 million, or 7% of the adult population. In the House of Representatives, it is 18%, and it is 19% in the Senate. While vastly overrepresented, this is a far cry from the 1965-1975 period when it was 70% in both chambers and peaked at 80% in…

The number of applications to start a new business fell from 27,000/week to 18,000/week during the second half of March and April. By the end of May, applications had fully recovered but they kept rising and peaked in early July at 40,000/week compared to the normal 22,500/week. Weekly applications are returning to normal but remain…

Business closures among law firms are very low at 1.6/1,000 firms; architects at 2/1,000 and accountants at 2.9/1,000 are also profoundly low. Conversely, burger joints at 56/1,000 and breakfast and brunch restaurants at 57/1,000 have suffered profoundly. The state with the most closed businesses – Hawaii with 22.8 closures per 1,000, CA is next at…

The Friday File: For the first time since 2005 and the second time ever, the Atlantic hurricane season has exceeded 21 named storms. As such, the weather service has run out of Latin alphabet storm names (Q, U, X, Y and Z are not used). So, we move to the Greek alphabet. In 2005 we…

August new home sales came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 1,011,000, and July’s sales were revised up from 901,000 to 965,000. New home sales are up a whopping 43.2% Y-o-Y and 14.9% YTD! As for August existing sales, they came in at a SAAR of 6 million, the best level since…

In the Eurozone, a key monthly purchasing manager sentiment index for service providers declined from 50.5 to 47.6 in September (below 50 signals contraction), its worst reading since May; for manufacturers the index rose from 51.7 to 53.7, tops in 25 months. Weakening services are in direct response to tighter restrictions due to rising Covid-19…

Economists believe in free markets and the prices and outcomes they produce because they are generally much more efficient than the alternatives. Some, however, argue that government should have a larger role and point, for example, to the very high prices for PPE early in the Sars-Cov-2 pandemic. These market critics are putting distribution/allocation of…

There have been 119 Supreme Court Justices. The current number of nine came to be in 1869 after six earlier efforts. The longest serving, William O. Douglas at 36.6 years. Justice Ginsburg was on the bench for 27.1 years. She was a trailblazer for many, especially women, and flourished in the face of and fought…

The Friday File: The fifth most popular US sports team name (including high schools, junior colleges, colleges, semi-pro leagues, and all professional leagues) is Wildcats with 969 teams. In fourth place is Panthers with 1,124 and in third is Bulldogs at 1,136. Comfortably in second is Tigers with 1,354 and in first place, Eagles with…

Housing, autos, retail sales, and equities are doing well, as is manufacturing. But first-time claims for unemployment remain stubbornly high and permanent job losses are rising as the service sector necessarily shrinks. Congress and the White House can’t agree on the size of another stimulus package, and home-based schooling is starting. There is also an…