Month: February 2023

In 2023, persons in a relationship plan to spend an average of $187 on Valentine’s Day gifts, down from a record $208 in 2022 but up from $144 in 2021. More interestingly, those in a dating relationship expect their partner…

While many firms are laying off staff, be it Amazon winnowing 18,000 or Disney culling 7,000, they all cut roughly 5% of their workforce. These firms probably decided in late 2022 based on economic conditions to start layoffs in early…

The Friday File: For Super Bowl LVII the Kansas City Chiefs will wear white jerseys, the Philadelphia Eagles green jerseys. Since SB I the team wearing white jerseys has won 64% of the time. Unrelatedly, the 74% accurate Super Bowl…

During the week of 1/23/23, average office use was 50.4% of its pre-pandemic level, the first time it has exceeded 50% since the start of the Covid pandemic. The office worker visit trough was 15% in spring 2020. Of the…

With cuts to Social Security and Medicare (at 23% and 14% of the budget) now apparently off the table, that leaves just 63% of the budget. But not really. Net interest is 8% and defense is 14%. That leaves just…

After a review of 16,000 megaprojects including skyscrapers, airports, museums, concert halls, nuclear reactors, roads, and hydroelectric dams across 136 nations, data show 47.9% are delivered on budget, 8.5% are delivered on budget and on time, and 0.5% are delivered…

January net payrolls rose by a staggering 517,000, and the unemployment rate fell to 3.4%, its lowest level since 5/69. Moreover, the average workweek, which had been steadily falling since peaking at 35 hours in 1/21, shot up from 34.4…

The Friday File: 27-year-old Mikaela Shiffrin recently won her 83rd and 84th World Cup victories in her illustrious career. In the process, she broke the women’s record set by fellow American Lindsey Vonn, who retired at 34. With three more…

Ten Senate Republicans have recently introduced legislation giving priority to debt service, salaries for troops, and Social Security. While the Treasury probably can prioritize payments in this fashion and thus avoid defaulting, this still creates very large payment delays. Given…

On 2/1/23, the Fed, unsurprisingly, raised rates 25bps. Moreover, they strongly suggested two more hikes of 25bps are in store and that there will be no rate cuts in 2023. Markets rallied, believing not only that the Fed won’t raise…