Econ70
11/16 was the first month since 12/14 that all five Federal Reserve bank regional manufacturing surveys were positive. The five Fed regional banks that survey manufacturers are Dallas, Kansas City, New York, Philadelphia, and Richmond. While all the indices have…
Seventy-five years ago today, a Japanese strike force of 353 planes staged a surprise 110 minute attack in two waves on Pearl Harbor, killing 2,403 Americans. Of the eight battleships in Pearl Harbor that day, four were sunk, one was…
Trump’s decision to essentially force Carrier to preserve 800 manufacturing jobs in Indianapolis is bad policy. If Trump thinks stunts like this will reverse the macroeconomic tide, he’s woefully uninformed. Moreover, other firms may threaten to outsource jobs to get…
Subtracting November’s excellent unemployment rate of 4.6%, (tops since 8/07) from the November U6 rate of 9.3%, the most expansive measure of unemployment and underemployment (and the best since 4/08), is a quick way to measure labor force slack. That…
The Friday File: For the five years ending 7/31/16, the most popular opera composer was Giuseppe Verdi, with 14% of global performances. W.A. Mozart was next at 10%, then Puccini at 9%, and Rossini, Wagner and Donizetti all at about…
The next shock to the global economy may come this Sunday. That’s when Italians vote on constitutional changes that Prime Minister Renzi has bet his job on and that aim to reduce institutional paralysis. Polls show Renzi’s referendum failing, forcing…
Net income at all 5,980 FDIC insured banks rose $5.2 billion Y-o-Y to $45.6 billion in 16Q3. Looking at the subset of 5,521 community banks, quarterly net income rose $593 million Y-o-Y to $5.6 billion. Better yet, fewer than 5%…
One reason existing home sales and inventory have recovered so slowly is a decline in moving. The percentage of Americans that moved fell to an all-time low of 11.2% in 2016 from a peak of 42% in the early 1950s.…
US consumer sentiment surged in November to 93.8, its best reading since 5/16, and up from 91.6 in mid-November and 87.2 in October, which matched a two-year low. While the mid-November reading was based on interviews through election day, the…
The Friday File: The costliest retail location in the world is 5th Avenue in NYC between 49th and 60th Streets; the rent is $3,500/square foot/year. Next comes Causeway Bay in Hong Kong at $2,399, the Champs Elysees in Paris at…