Econ70

Delicious Daddy

05/31/2013

The Friday File: While female spiders are well known to eat their suitors following intercourse, the question has always been why. Turns out, spiderlings born of females that eat their partner have a 48% of survival while spiderlings born to…

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Chinese Pork Purchase

05/30/2013

Shuanghui International Holdings’ purchase of Smithfield Foods for $7.1 billion, including debt, will be approved by federal regulators. This is because the relevant regulator, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS), only blocks deals involving national security. And…

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Bearable Budget Battle

05/29/2013

The budget deficit is falling rapidly and is now projected to be $642 billion, or 4% of GDP, in FY 2013. It was projected to be $200 billion higher just three months ago. This improvement will delay the next debt…

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Bet Your Fannie

05/28/2013

Including a one-time $50.6 billion adjustment, Fannie’s Q1 income was an amazing $58.1 billion! Even excluding the $50.6 billion, its ordinary earnings of $8.1 billion were outstanding. Assuming it does that well the rest of 2013, Fannie’s 2013 income would…

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Dry Policy

05/24/2013

The Friday file: Since 1940, raisin farmers have been required to give away a percentage of their crop to the Raisin Administrative Committee. The RAC annually decides how many raisins are needed and confiscates the rest. In 2003, farmers forfeited…

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Painless Price Rise

05/23/2013

Despite the recent rise in house prices and residential shelter costs comprising 32% of the CPI, rising house prices won’t, in the short run, worsen inflation. This is because the CPI does not look at house prices, but rather the…

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Tax Unreform

05/22/2013

Between Benghazi, the heavy-handed AP data grab and the IRS fiasco, any tiny window for tax reform has all but shut. While Senator Baucus and Representative Camp, who head up both tax writing committees have 17 months until the next…

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Excellent Equities Environment

05/21/2013

The current bull market that began on 3/9/09 has lifted the S&P 500 over 146%, and now ranks as the fifth best bull market in history. It’s also within 10% of the fourth best rally of 157.70% that occurred between…

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More Mediocrity

05/20/2013

The good: the index of leading economic indicators rose, as did retail sales, consumer sentiment, and housing permits. The bad: Europe is now officially in recession, first-time unemployment claims rose, manufacturing activity declined, inflation as measured four different ways is…

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Watch List

05/17/2013

The Friday File: In 2011, 1.15 billion watches sold for $30 billion. China sold the most, almost 700 million pieces, and at an average price of $2/watch; their industry was worth $1.5 billion. By contrast, the average price of the…

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