Month: March 2021

This year, 49% of us are celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, albeit in slightly subdued fashion, down from 57% last year, and 60%, the recent high, in 2018. Celebrants will spend an average of $40.77 on Guinness, corned beef and cabbage,…

After peaking in the early 1970s at 13%, the US personal savings rate steadily declined and bottomed at about 3% in the run up to the housing bust. Subsequently, rates quickly rose to 7% and remained there through early 2020.…

In 2020, 60% of US large-cap stock-picking mutual funds lagged the unmanaged S&P 500. Regrettably, this underperformance isn’t new. 2020 was the 11th straight year a majority of actively managed funds underperformed the index. Of all large-cap actively managed funds…

The Friday File: During 2020, the Knight-Frank Luxury Investment Index rose just 3% after declining 1% in 2019. The top performer for the second year in a row, Hermes handbags (think Birkin bag) up 17%, bettering their 13% jump in…

A year ago today, the WHO declared Sars-CoV-2 a global pandemic. Lockdowns commenced and prices of many goods and services collapsed, airline tickets, clothes, oil, as examples, and M-o-M inflation readings went negative in March, April, and May. Comparing those…

The Powell Fed has made it clear it will continue purchasing Treasuries and MBS for the foreseeable future and keep short-term rates at rock bottom levels, but will not counter rising long-term rates. This is because financial conditions are loose,…

In 2020, motor-vehicle crashes killed 42,060 people, up (yes, up) 8% from 2019. Moreover, vehicle miles driven dropped 13% last year. This means that the rate of road deaths per million miles driven rose 24%, to 1.49, the biggest annual…

February’s job growth of 379,000 and an upward revision of 177,000 to January’s number is good. Restaurants & bars added 289,000 jobs, while recreational outlets, hotels and medical offices added 97,000, reminding us that Covid-19 drives this recovery. All, however,…

The Friday File: Recently completed SoFi stadium in LA, at $5.5 billion, is the most expensive stadium ever built. Next most costly, Metlife Stadium (where the NFL’s Jets and Giants play lifelessly) at $2.03 billion. Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium follows…

Existing inventory of residential homes is currently just 1.04 million units, or 1.9 months of supply, both record lows. It is partly due to insufficient homebuilding over the past decade, Boomers aging in place, Covid-19 preventing sellers from listing, huge…