Econ70

The Friday File: By analyzing 2 million phone calls, we now know Oregonians speak fastest, followed by residents from Minnesota, Massachusetts, Kansas, and Iowa. The slowest talkers are Mississippians, followed by residents from Louisiana, SC, AL, and NC. Those who…

While India’s economy is growing at 7.3%, China’s at 6.8%, and ours at 2.4%, India’s GDP is just $2 trillion, the same size as Italy’s while China’s is $10.4 trillion and ours is $17.4 trillion. At these growth rates, China…

With the Bank of Japan recently joining the European Central Bank and central banks in Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland in imposing negative interest rates, close to 30% of sovereign bonds now offer negative yields. As a result, banks in those…

Financial indicators such as yield spreads between investment grade bonds and junk bonds, equity values, inflation rates, Treasury yields and commodity prices suggest a weak economy and a moderately high recession probability. Yet car and home sales, employment growth, job…

The Friday File: Americans will spend $19.7 billion on Valentine’s Day, up from $18.9 billion last year and slightly higher than the GDP of Haiti. Of those celebrating Valentine’s Day, men will invest $196.39; women $99.87. The most popular gifts…

With fear and volatility pervasive, financial markets are stymieing central banks. In Japan, where the economy probably shrank in Q4, and where 10-year bond yields are negative as a result of negative interest rates having been recently introduced in an…

While most stock market declines are false alarms when it comes to predicting recessions, when the market declines by 20% or more, watch out. In the past 50 years there have been seven such declines. The worst three, 1973, 2001…

Despite a record 27.3 million Hispanics being eligible to vote in the fall elections, and almost half being Millennials, Hispanic influence will be muted. In 2012, just 37% of Hispanic Millennials eligible to vote voted, and over half of all…

While down from December, January’s 151,000 new jobs was solid! The labor force participation rate rose to 62.7%, 0.3 points above the September low, and its best showing since 5/15; for those 25-55 the LFPR is up 0.5 points since…

The Friday File: With a prediction rate of 82%, a level any economist would be proud of, and a streak of perfection dating back to 2009, the Super Bowl Predictor is not to be taken lightly, despite having not a…