Econ70

The home ownership vacancy rate is 0.9%, the lowest rate since at least 1956. The rental vacancy rate is 5.8%, the lowest rate since 1984. Existing inventory is 1.27 million, the lowest October reading in over 20 years, built new…

US employers added 210,000 jobs in November (which will undoubtedly be revised upward next month) as labor demand slightly slowed and labor supply grew as the labor-force participation rate rose to 61.8%. As a result, wage growth slowed to 0.3%…

The Friday File: At present there are five Covid-19 variants of concern: alpha, beta, gamma, delta and omicron. There are two variants of interest: lambda and mu, and three former variants of interest now classified as variants under monitoring: kappa,…

In September, the latest month for which data exists, a staggering 3% or 4.4 million US employees quit their jobs. At the bottom of the wage-scale it’s due to a desire to avoid face-to-face contact. That should dissipate as jobs…

With the arrival of the Omicron variant, Fed fear of inflation has unseated unemployment as problem #1. Just as the Delta variant weakened GDP growth and worsened supply-chain problems, the fear is that a replay is in the offing with…

From 7/21 through 10/21, real personal consumption steadily rose from an annualized rate of $13.65 trillion to $13.88 trillion, a roughly $200 billion rise. Simultaneously, real disposable income steadily shrank from $15.74 trillion in July to $15.43 trillion, a decline…

Rather than raising rates to fight inflation, Turkish President Erdogan is lowering them in an idiotic effort to drive growth by weakening his currency. It’s already fallen 40% this year, and annual inflation is minimally 20%. A weaker currency helps…

The Friday File: In 2008, the USPS and UPS each delivered about 3.5 billion packages in the US while FedEx delivered almost 2 billion, a total of almost 9 billion, or 30 packages/person. In 2020, the USPS delivered slightly more…

While turkeys don’t fly, their cost are soaring. The price of an 8- to 16-pound frozen turkey is $1.35/lb. up 27% Y-o-Y, largely due to frozen bird inventories being down 30% from their 2016-2020 5-year average. Accordingly, the American Farm…

President Biden reappointed Chairman Powell to a second four-year term as Fed Head. Simultaneously, he promoted Lael Brainerd from Fed Governor to Vice Chair. With these titles, both will enjoy easy Senate confirmation. President Biden still has three more positions…