The Bowtie Economist's Daily Dose of 70-Word Wisdom


Waning Wealth

08/04/2015

The inflation-adjusted median wealth of families headed by someone over 61 rose 40% between 1989 and 2013, from $150,000 to $210,000. For households headed by someone aged 40 to 61, wealth fell 31% from $154,000 to $106,000, while for households…

Dr. Eisenberg’s presentation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University covered in the Daily Courier

08/04/2015

Max Efrein of The Daily Courier covered Dr. Eisenberg’s presentation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Read more here.

Rotten Revision

08/03/2015

Recently revised GDP numbers show that GDP in Q1/15 grew at 0.6% not by -0.2%, but also revealed that GDP growth was just 2% between 2012 and 2014, not 2.3%, a sizable reduction. This means labor productivity growth is worse…

Madoff Money

07/31/2015

The Friday File: Over the past 6.5 years, trustee Irving Picard has recovered almost $11 billion of the $17 billion stolen by Bernard Madoff. But this work has been costly. At $413.30/hour after a “public interest” discount of 10%, the…

Incipient Inflation

07/30/2015

While the inflation rate is about 0%, the price of goods is falling at 3.3%/year while services inflation is running at 2%/year. Goods are falling in price due to cheap imports, a strong dollar, excess capacity, and falling raw material…

Rate Reluctance

07/29/2015

While the Fed did not raise rates at today’s just concluded interest rate setting meeting, they removed any semblance of date guidance and again told us that the data will determine when the first rate rise since 2006 occurs. No…

Heading Home

07/28/2015

Dropping Diesel

07/27/2015

The cost of diesel is below the price of gasoline for the first time since 2009. Gasoline prices peak in spring/summer due to driving, while diesel demand peaks in autumn and winter due to agricultural activity and winter heating. Therefore,…

Meaty Measurement

07/24/2015

The Friday File: Assuming exchange rates and prices eventually adjust to make the same item equally priced everywhere, the Big Mac Index was developed. In Switzerland, a Big Mac is a whopping $6.82, its currency is hopelessly overvalued. In Russia,…

High Housing

07/23/2015

June existing home sales hit their highest number since 7/06, and while the median sales price hit a record-high of $236,400, an inflation-adjusted price comparable to 7/06 would be $270,014. Part of the picture is that the number of distressed…

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