Econ70

Long Leap

02/29/2024

The Earth takes exactly 365.24219 days to rotate around the sun. Adding an extra day every four years makes the average length of a year 365.25 days, slightly too much. The Gregorian calendar eliminated leap days in years ending in…

Read More

Company Concentration

02/28/2024

The current share of the S&P 500 market capitalization held by the largest five firms is a staggering 25%. Those firms are, in order of market capitalization, Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, and Nvidia. The last time the top five were…

Read More

Residential Review

02/27/2024

January existing home sales rose 3.1% M-o-M to a rate of 4 million, the best level since 4.03 million in 8/23, but sales fell 1.7% Y-o-Y. Despite high rates, home prices rose 5.1% in January Y-o-Y to $379,100, the highest…

Read More

BNPL Burden

02/26/2024

Based on 6/23 data, 19% of households used buy now, pay later (BNPL) loans in the past year. BNPL use peaks at 43% among households with credit scores below 620. Usage is also highest, at 41%, among households who had…

Read More

Marathon Movement

02/23/2024

The Friday File: In 1960, the male marathon record was 135 minutes and the female record was 220 minutes. By 1980, the male record was 129 minutes while the female record was 150 minutes. Today the male record is 2:00:35…

Read More

More Markups

02/22/2024

U.S. firm markups over prices rose 11% between 1980 and 2015, but the reason is likely quite benign. The primary cause is the shift by consumers, who have become steadily wealthier, towards buying more services, which has allowed service providers…

Read More

Rising Retail

02/21/2024

Immediately pre-Covid, the vacancy rate at U.S. shopping centers was 6.25%. The rate peaked in 12/20 at over 7% but has been declining since and is now 5.3%, the lowest level in probably decades. This is because consumers are again…

Read More

Single-family Success

02/20/2024

While housing starts in January fell 15% M-o-M and almost 1% Y-o-Y, that misses the point entirely. Single-family starts slid 4.7% M-o-M but are up 22% Y-o-Y. By contrast, multifamily fell 36% M-o-M and 38% Y-o-Y. Similarly, single-family permits rose…

Read More

Profound Productivity

02/19/2024

The best current economic trend is rising labor productivity. After sinking from 22Q2-24Q2, it recently posted the best two quarters since mid-2010! Part of me is skeptical as job growth has recently been in education, leisure & hospitality, and healthcare,…

Read More

Fantastic Football

02/16/2024

The Friday File: Super Bowl LVIII was watched by 123.4 million viewers, the highest number of viewers of the same broadcast in US history. That number is the average number that were tuned in at any given moment. The number…

Read More

Recent Posts

Categories

Archives