Econ70

Today’s labor numbers were OK. First-time claims for unemployment remain very low at 281,000, employment growth is solid averaging 208,000/month YTD, and unemployment is just 5.3% with full employment less than a year away. But, wage growth remains weak averaging…

The unfolding Greek tragedy won’t directly affect the US as US banks hold almost no Greek debt, but may impact us indirectly. If things get volatile in Europe, the ECB will increase bond purchases, putting downward pressure on interest rates…

While single family housing starts are up 6.7% year-to-date and single family permits are up 7.5% year-to-date, new home sales are up a staggering 24%! This means that what’s being built is changing. Specifically relatively fewer custom homes and more…

The ECB decision to cap the emergency lending program to Greece rather than take more dramatic steps, like demanding higher amounts of collateral for loans or reducing the size of the emergency loans, keeps Greek banks sufficiently alive such that…

The Friday File: Congratulations to Taylor Swift, a 25 year-old music monopolist extraordinaire. In a battle over royalties during a free trial period for listeners of Apple Music, Apple blinked and will now pay artists despite receiving no revenue. Her…

College tuition is insanely high, but things are changing. While online learning helps, the biggest impact will be better informed buyers. Until recently, students and parents had little awareness of the financial benefits of different majors or the “value added”…

While the US Government has strongly reiterated its policy of not negotiating with kidnappers of American citizens so as to appropriately discourage the activity, it’s now inexplicably allowing families of the kidnapped to directly negotiate with the kidnappers. While some…

The US corporate tax rate of 35% is the highest in the world. In Germany it’s 16%, Canada 15% and Ireland 12.5%. Worse, it raises little money. In 2014, US pre-tax corporate profits were $2 trillion. 35% of that would…

Last month the median existing home sales price was $228,700, way up from the cyclical low of $154,600 in 1/12, and less than one-percent below the all-time high of $230,400 set in 7/06, almost nine years ago. While there’s a…

The Friday File: The percentage of employees testing positive for drug use in 2014 was 3.9%, up from 3.7% in 2013. Prior to 2013, drug use had declined nearly every year from a high of 13.6% in 1988 to a…