Econ70

Seventy-three thousand homes were pulled from sale in December, representing almost 1 in 10 homes on the market, a 64% Y-o-Y surge, and the biggest December jump since 2015. There is clearly significantly more desire to sell than buy. This…

January retail sales were down a substantial 0.9%, the biggest monthly decline in almost two years and well worse than the expected 0.2% decline. Car sales fell, as did sales at most stores. There have been occasional blooper months since…

The Friday File: In 1983, Alexa was the 745th most popular name with about 200 girls receiving it. It then steadily rose, peaking in 2006 at 39th most popular, with over 6,100 girls given the name. By 2014, when Amazon…

A recent Home Street report finds climate change will reduce US home values by $1.47 trillion by 2055. Some perspective please: while $1.47 trillion sounds enormous, the current value of US residential property is $52 trillion. If home values rise…

In the first four months of FY25, the budget deficit totaled $838 billion; $306 billion more Y-o-Y. Revenues were $11 billion higher, outlays were $317 billion higher. But some of the increase was due to calendar effects. Absent them the…

By reducing US demand for imports, tariffs reduce the supply of dollars flowing to foreigners. That reduced supply raises the foreign exchange value of the dollar. While a stronger dollar reduces inflation, it makes US exports more expensive. This partly…

January net job growth was a decent 143,000, Nov/Dec were upwardly revised by 100,000, and the unemployment rate fell to 4%, its best level since 5/24. But the workweek slid to 34.1 hours, the lowest reading since 3/20, and quite…

The Friday File: Coffee futures just touched a new all-time high, almost $4/pound, foreshadowing significant consumer pain in the coming months. It’s because Brazil is coming off a lousy crop. And with wholesale eggs at over $7/dozen, breakfast may now…

Pending home sales slipped 5.5% M-o-M in December and slid 5% Y-o-Y. This isn’t surprising, given the nearly one percentage point rise in 30-year mortgage rates since the recent low of 6.08% for the week ending 9-26-24. Moreover, absent seasonal…

While the Fed’s favorite inflation measure came in at 0.2% for December (the unrounded number was 0.156%), the six-month rate is running at 2.3%, and the three-month at 2.2%, very close to the Fed’s 2% target. Better yet, while labor…