With just 38,000 net new jobs created in May and downward revisions totaling 59,000 to March and April, last Friday’s jobs report was lousy! That said, while recent economic data haven’t been spectacular, they aren’t that bad and weekly jobless…
The Friday File: During the just completed 2015-16 season, Broadway attendance hit 13.3 million, up from 13.1 million the year before. While the average ticket price fell from $104.18 to $103.11, revenues rose 0.6% to $1.37 billion. The Lion King,…
In 2015, construction added 222,000 jobs, 9% of all new jobs, and behind only the retail, food, professional services and healthcare sectors, all of which are much bigger than construction. Thus, construction was the sector with the largest percentage employment…
Consumer spending rose 1% in April, the biggest rise since 8/09. Moreover, personal income grew a strong 0.4% and the savings rate declined to 5.4% from 5.9%. May auto sales remained strong at an annualized rate of 17.5 million, but…
In 2015, the US was, for the 4th year running, the top global producer of petroleum and natural gas hydrocarbons. In 2015, the US produced 15 million bbl/day of oil equivalent petroleum, including 9.4 million bbl/day of crude oil, and…
All too frequently the argument is made that government assistance programs subsidize low wage employers. That is, firms like Wal-Mart, McDonalds and Target, to name just a few, are able to pay very low wages precisely because management knows that…
The Friday File: The cemetery with the largest number of American military dead in Europe is the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial, with 14,246 total burials. Most lost their lives during WWI. The largest cemetery in the Pacific is the…
With April durable goods sales surprisingly strong, retail sales edging up, trade data looking slightly better, housing strengthening, and industrial production increasing — despite continued weakness in agriculture, energy and export-oriented manufacturing — Q2 GDP should be 3%, up sharply…
Despite the cost, China continues propping up its overvalued currency. It does this by selling dollars and buying yuan. In this process, the Chinese money supply shrinks, making growth more difficult, China burns through its foreign reserves, which have already…
Doubling the pay threshold under which salaried workers must be eligible for overtime to $47,476 a year will make an additional 4.2 million employees, less than 3% of all workers, eligible for overtime pay. By comparison, increasing the minimum wage…