Econ70

The Friday File: The world’s heaviest pumpkin is 2,625 pounds, grown in 2016 by Belgian Mathia Willemijn. He broke the then record of 2,324 pounds set in 2014 by Germany’s Beni Meier. Meier broke Californian Tim Matheson’s 2013 record of…

It’s earnings season again, however, unlike other seasons, this one lasts all year! It’s because public firms must report earnings within 35 days of the quarter close. Since there are thousands of firms and their quarters end at different times,…

Due to a prolonged period of super-low interest rates, US corporations have gorged on debt, with total non-financial corporate debt rising from a trough of $6 trillion in 2010 to $10 trillion today. Worse, the lowest quality investment-grade debt (BBB…

While referendums seem like a great way to raise political engagement, they are risky (hello Great Britain) because they treat every issue in isolation, ignoring the inevitable and painful political and budgetary trade-offs inherent in lawmaking. This results in incoherent…

It may have been the dotcom bust of 2001 or the housing bust of 2008, but it’s always been the US that’s dragged other nations into recessions. Next time things may reverse. The US share of global GDP keeps falling,…

The Friday File: Last Sunday, Simone Biles became the most decorated gymnast ever after earning her 25th career medal, including 19 golds, topping the prior record of 24 set by Ukrainian Vitaly Scherbo in 1996. Moreover, women’s gymnastics has only…

The IMF is predicting global growth to slump to just 3% in 2019, the weakest rate since the housing bust and down from 3.8% as recently as 2017. The major culprit, global trade, which will grow by just 1.1%; in…

When raising the minimum wage two things are relevant. First, what percentage of impacted firms are exporters? They are much less able to raise prices to offset the increase as they compete in world markets. Second, what percentage of the…

Prior to slapping tariffs on China, US tariff revenues were $3 billion/month. They’re now $7 billion/month; an increase of around $50 billion/year or 0.25% of GDP. Thus, GDP has been reduced by at least this much, and realistically much more…

Earlier this morning, the Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to a trio of economists, Abhijit Banerjee and his wife Esther Duflo (only the second woman to win an Economics Nobel and the youngest recipient ever at 46) both from…