While markets were calm today, the rest of the week, maybe not. Tomorrow, the Fed’s favorite inflation measure (core personal consumption expenditure inflation) comes out, on Wednesday the Fed probably announces a quarter-point cut in rates (first time since 2008);…
The Friday File: Assuming each player makes 40 moves, there are conservatively about 10120 possible chess games. Ignoring silly moves, the number falls to a more manageable 1050. For example, after each player has moved just five times, there are…
Besides lifting the debt ceiling until at least 7/21 and avoiding a government shutdown till 10/1/21, the recently agreed upon two-year budget deal boosts FY2020 discretionary spending by a total of $49 billion compared to FY2019. Defense spending will rise…
In the year ending 3/19, foreign purchases of US residential real estate declined to $77.90 billion, down from a peak of $153.01 billion two years ago, their weakest level in six years. Chinese buying activity declined the most; by 50%…
I’m not sure what problem Facebook’s newly proposed cryptocurrency, Libra, solves. For those with a bank account and credit card, Libra solves no problem. For the unbanked, theoretically it’s great, but how do you buy Libra absent a credit card…
During the first nine months of FY2019, the deficit rose $140 billion, or 23.1%, to $747.1 billion. Meanwhile, revenues totaled $2.61 trillion, up 3%, while spending hit $3.36 trillion, up 7%, both record highs. The jump in receipts included a…
The Friday File: Tomorrow at 4:17pm EDT is the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s lunar landing! Armstrong subsequently set foot on the Moon at 10:56pm EDT; Aldrin joined him 19 minutes later. That ended the Space Race…
June retail sales rose a surprising 0.4% and are probably running at their best sustained pace in five years! June manufacturing activity rose a solid 0.4%, June job growth was excellent, and the trade wars are calming down. All this…
Border apprehensions steadily rose from essentially nothing in 1960 to slightly over 1.5 million/year from 1996 through 2000. Apprehensions then steadily declined to a low of about 400,000/year in 2010 through 2018. However, in 2019, border apprehensions are way up…
OPEC and Russia recently extended a production cap until 3/20. However, OPEC’s share of global production is 39.2%, down from 42.2%, while US share is 14.5%, up from 10.9%. To date, most of the decline has resulted from sharp involuntary…