Econ70

August’s employment growth of 201,000 was strong, and employment growth over the last three months of 185,000/month is slightly above the CY2017 pace of 182,000. Better yet, wage growth rose 2.9% Y-o-Y, its fastest pace since mid-2009, and the broadest…

The Friday File: Among persons over 69, 10% have a tattoo; 13% of those 51-69 have body art. For those 36-50, 36% have a tat and for persons 18 to 35 it’s 47%. Moreover, the percentage of persons with two…

YTD, the US trade deficit is $337.9 billion, a record high, and up $22 billion compared to January through July of 2017. The widening deficit is likely to reduce Q3GDP by almost a percentage point. The drivers of the widening…

While Musk’s tweet about taking Tesla private was nonsense, it’s trend indicative. After peaking at roughly 8,000 firms in 1996, the number of US public companies has fallen steadily and is now about 4,000. Similarly, the number of IPOs has…

The Federal Reserve is struggling with four issues. Is the nearly inverted yield curve telling us to raise short-term rates more slowly lest we invert the curve and precipitate a recession? How economically growth sapping will trade wars be? What’s…

The Friday File: At the worst of the Great Recession, total US employment was 129.7 million. Since then, the number of employed Americans has steadily risen and is now 149.1 million. Better yet, 51% of workers said they are satisfied…

Consumer confidence is by some measures at its highest level since 10/2000. Unemployment is microscopic, pay is up, and GDP growth is strong. Yet housing slumps. Pending sales are down Y-o-Y for seven straight months, existing sales have fallen four…

In 2010, gross sales margin as a percentage of new-car price was 4.4%; today it’s 2.5%. Relatedly, the largest US bank just reduced to zero the cost of stock and ETF trades for some of its customers, and a brokerage…

Today, National Bow Tie Day, know that bow ties are most popular in MS, SC and AL. Just 22% of them sold are self-tied and only 1% of men can tie one! 41% of bow ties are black, followed by…

While many emerging nations suffer from some of the conditions that ail Turkey, no other nation has them all. These problems include a huge budget deficit, the second highest current-account deficit among emerging market nations, huge externally denominated sovereign and…