Econ70

While electric cars sell, they come with two problems. The first, a large public subsidy. When it ended, as it did in Hong Kong and the State of Georgia, sales plummeted by 100% and 80% respectively. The second problem, high…

When asked how they would spend repatriated earnings that are held abroad, the most popular answer was pay down debt, followed by repurchasing existing shares. Next was getting into mergers and acquisitions, fourth was increasing capital spending and fifth was…

Overhauling NAFTA may be very hard. First, unlike Obamacare, Congress likes NAFTA. Second, as Trump is unpopular in Canada and loathed in Mexico, granting significant concessions to the US may be politically impossible. Third, the concessions Canada and Mexico made…

The Friday File: The shortest scheduled passenger flight is between the Orkney Islands of Westray and Papa Westray. The distance of the flight is 1.7 miles, and with a good tailwind can be flown in under a minute. The cost…

Household debt rose for the 12th straight quarter in 17Q2, and is $12.8 trillion, a record. However, it’s just 67% of GDP, compared to 87% in 08Q3, when household debt last peaked. But, credit card and auto loan delinquencies are…

While retail sales jumped 0.6% in July, and May and June were upwardly revised, don’t conclude that consumer spending, 70% of GDP, is necessarily great. Retail sales including food service sales equal $2.4 trillion/year, 20% of consumer spending. Consumer spending…

Among western industrialized nations, Singapore’s homeownership rate is tops; 90.8%, Norway follows at 82.8%, then Iceland at 77.8%, Italy at 72.9%, Finland at 72.7%, Luxembourg at 72.5%, Belgium at 71.3%, Sweden at 70.6%, Ireland at 68.6%, Netherlands at 67.8%, Canada…

The Friday File: The largest sporting event in the world, by number of athletes, was the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics which included 11,237 athletes. Second was the 2015 African Games held in Brazzaville, Congo which counted 15,000 athletes, coaches, and…

When western democracies hit peak manufacturing employment in the early 1970s, national income was about $20,000/person and manufacturing employment was 30% of total employment. When the next wave of nations including Brazil and South Korea hit peak manufacturing employment in…