Econ70

The Friday File: In 1974, Hungarian architecture professor Erno Rubik invents what is now known as the Rubik’s cube. It has 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 possible combinations, or 43 quintillion. Since its introduction in 1980, 400 million have been sold, and currently global…

With 325 million people, the US is the world’s third largest nation behind China with 1.4 billion and India with 1.3 billion. By 2100, India will be the biggest at 1.5 billion, followed by China at 1 billion, Nigeria at…

In 1967, 8.1% of households earned more than $100,000 inflation adjusted, 53.2% (the middle class) earned between $35,000 and $100,000, and 38.7% earned less than $35,000. Today, 27.7% of the population earns greater than $100,000 (three times the percentage back…

While US household debt is slowly rising, as a percentage of GDP it’s 20 percentage points below its housing bubble peak of 100%. Nations with fast rising and high household debt-to-GDP ratios include Switzerland at 130%, Australia at 120%, Canada…

The imposition of a 10% tariff on aluminum and a 25% tariff on steel will boost inflation by upwards of one-tenth-of-one percent and reduce GDP by an equal amount. This is because prices will rise for all items containing these…

The Friday File: The PGA is the sport with the oldest fans; an average age of 63. Horse racing follows at 62, then NASCAR at 59 and cycling at 58. By contrast, soccer fans average just 41 years of age,…

The number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment for the week ending 2/24/18 fell to 210,000, the lowest level since 12/6/69! This is no fluke. The more stable four-week moving average for initial claims fell to 220,500, the lowest…

BP expects global demand for oil to peak in 2035 at 110 million bbl/day, up from 98 million today. Shell expects peak oil in 2025, while Chevron and Exxon offer no opinion. The Saudi energy minister expects peak oil demand…

The Fed continues to suggest it will stick to its gradual path of interest rate tightening despite oncoming massive fiscal stimulus. This makes sense. What better environment is there to see what impact running the economy hot will have than…

In 1/18, sales of existing houses came in at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 5.38 million. That’s 3.2% lower than 12/17 and 4.8% lower than 1/17, the steepest Y-o-Y decline since 8/14. Y-o-Y inventory declined for the 32nd straight month,…