Month: December 2024

The Friday File: In 2023, Christmas tree prices spiked and peaked on Thanksgiving at $131. They then steadily declined and were down to $100 on 12/10, $80 by 10/18, $60 by 10/23 and $55 on Christmas Day. This means the…

Americans need income of almost $800,000/year to be in the top 1%, but the amount varies dramatically by state. At the high end, DC leads the way with a necessary income of $1.22 million/year, followed closely by Connecticut at $1.17…

Markets slumped badly today for two reasons. While the Fed cut rates 25bps as expected, it plans to cut rates less in 2025, but don’t worry, this Fed will change its mind, it always does. Also, a stop-gap bill to…

Amazon (AMZN) is worth $2.45 trillion, and Blue Origin, albeit not public, is probably worth $40 billion. Conversely, the Washington Post (WPO), unable to hire an Executive Editor for months and hemorrhaging talent and subscribers, is worth $4 billion. If…

While existing inflationary pressures should weaken further, it’s proposed policies that may reawaken it. Higher tariffs will, even if only temporarily, raise prices. Similarly, tax cuts are likely to boost inflation as consumer spending and corporate investment increase, unless there…

Boomers define financial success as a salary of $100,000/year and net worth of $1 million. For Gen X, the numbers are $212,000/year and $5.3 million, while for Millennials they are $181,000/year and $5.6 million. However, for Gen Z, income is…

While wage growth declined from 5.9%/year during 5/22 to 3.6%/year in 7/24, it’s since risen to 4%/year. While growth this high isn’t generally conducive to 2% inflation, a doubling of productivity growth to 2% makes it possible. The rise is…

While many equity investors try to time market tops and bottoms to improve returns, their results have only gotten worse since Covid. Between 1/1/2015 and 12/31/2019, market timing attempts across a variety of actively traded mutual-fund styles cost investors 0.53…

November employment growth was a hearty 227,000, and there were upward revisions totaling 56,000 to September and October. The good November result confirms the weak October result was due to hurricanes and the Boeing strike. However, the unemployment rate rose…