Q1/16 revenue at Amazon was a staggering $29 billion and net income was $513 million. More interesting, Amazon Web Services (AWS) revenue jumped 64% to $2.6 billion, 9% of total revenue, but 67% of operating income and 56% of operating…
While the seasonally adjusted Q1/16 home ownership rate of 63.6% slipped from 63.7% in Q4/15, the long decline in homeownership is over. In Q1/15, the rate was 63.8%, just 0.2 percentage points above where it is now, its smallest January…
Q1/16 GDP growth came in at a very lackluster 0.5%, its worst performance since Q1/14. Since 2010, lousy Q1 GDP growth has been the norm, averaging just 0.8%. The good news; consumer spending grew a passable 1.9% and new-home construction…
The Friday File: With more efficient planes and low fuel costs, ultra-long flights are in. The longest flight in the world is 8,810 miles, takes 17 hours and 20 minutes, and is from Auckland to Dubai. The next longest is…
There are many problems with negative interest rates. First, small and medium-sized firms can’t borrow by issuing bonds; they borrow from banks and bank rates are much higher. Second, negative rates hurt bank balance sheets, hurting credit availability. Cheap money…
Of late, oil and equities have rallied, job growth has firmed, the dollar has weakened, credit conditions have improved, but growth has slowed. Financial markets peg the probability of a June Fed rate hike at just 19.6%. To give themselves…
While industrial production (one of four indicators used to determine recessions) has fallen six of the past seven months, it’s not flashing recession. Manufacturing, which comprises 78.48% of the index is down just 0.4% Y-o-Y. By contrast, mining and utilities…
While six central banks now charge private banks to hold deposits at the central bank (negative interest rates), the Federal Reserve doesn’t. However, after inflation, the rate the Fed pays banks on deposits has been negative since 10/09 except for…
The Friday file: Tonight millions of Jews will celebrate Passover and their exodus from slavery in Egypt 3,500 years ago. Part of the celebration entails placing unleavened bread, bitter herbs, and other items which allude to or are symbolic of…
In 2015, suburban counties grew by almost 1% to 159 million people while urban counties grew by 0.8% to 77 million. In the last decade, cities grew faster than suburbs only once, in 2011. In 2014 and 2015 high-density and…