Month: January 2021

Flying Funds

01/29/2021

The Friday File: Airplanes are not only expensive to buy, each B-2 costs $2 billion, they are also expensive to operate. The same B-2 costs $63 million/year to operate, the B-52 Stratofortress costs $25 million/year, and the B-1B Lancer, $24…

Read More

Gaming GameStop

01/28/2021

While this may be nothing but a stupid bubble, created by new technology such as Reddit/chat boards and Robinhood and the unintended consequences of low interest rates and massive liquidity due to overreliance on monetary policy, it could be the…

Read More

Seasonal Sales

01/27/2021

Existing-home sales jumped in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 6.76 million, the highest level since 2006. Usually, sales weaken in December but due to Covid-19 seasonality has disappeared. Had December’s sales of 540,000 occurred in July,…

Read More

Inflation Inquiry

01/26/2021

The Fed, the ECB, and the BoJ have collectively increased balance sheets by $8 trillion since Sars-Cov-2’s debut. Last recession, it took the same central banks eight years to accumulate that much. With such large reserves, higher rates due to…

Read More

Solid Starts

01/25/2021

In December, housing starts were at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 1.67 million, their best since 9/06 and up 5.2% Y-o-Y. Single-family activity was up 28% Y-o-Y, multifamily starts fell 39%, both percentages being strongly Covid-19 influenced. Total starts…

Read More

Presidential Pets

01/22/2021

The Friday File: This past Wednesday, not only did President and Dr. Jill Biden move into the White House, but so did Major, a three-year old rescue German Shepard, and Champ, a 13-year old German Shepard, the First Canines. There…

Read More

Tax Tactics

01/21/2021

Higher taxes are probably in the offing but not right now. Raising taxes while crawling out from Sars-Cov-2 is unwise. And, with razor thin majorities in both chambers and Republicans against higher taxes, the entire Democratic caucus in each chamber…

Read More

Presidential Precedents

01/20/2021

FDR was the first president to be sworn in on January 20th. It had been March 20th until then, but the 20th amendment changed that. Harry Truman’s second inauguration (pollsters expected Dewey’s first) was the first to be televised, Carter…

Read More

Population Problem

01/19/2021

For the year ending 7/1/20, the US population grew just 0.35%, the slowest rate since at least 1900! Part of the reason is Covid-19 related, but the entire decade was a demographic bust due to an aging population and limited…

Read More

Weak Week

01/18/2021

Initial weekly jobless claims, a proxy for job losses, rose by 181,000, its biggest rise since 8/22/20, almost five months ago. Moreover, retail sales fell for the third straight month, consumer confidence slipped slightly, and inflation be it the CPI,…

Read More

Recent Posts

Categories

Archives