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


Housing Finance

04/17/2013

With the mortgage refinancing wave largely over, mortgage originations will decline considerably in 2013, perhaps by as much as 50%. That said, home equity lines of credit will become increasingly popular as homeowners struggle to extract cash from their homes,…

Read More

Down Data

04/16/2013

Retail sales fell a surprisingly large 0.4% in March, the biggest decline since 6/12 and the preliminary University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment declined to 72.3 in April from 78.6 in March. Worse, February retail sales were cut by…

Read More

Tax Trivia

04/15/2013

In 1934, individual income taxes were 14% of tax receipts, today they’re 47%. Similarly, social insurance and retirement receipts were just 1% but are 35% today. By contrast, corporate income taxes were just 12% in 1934, reached a high of…

Read More

Masterful Musicians

04/12/2013

The Friday File: On 12/5/12, jazz great Dave Brubeck died at age 91 and on 2/27/13 Harvey Lavan Cliburn, Jr. known best as Van Cliburn passed at age 78. Brubeck’s 1959 album “Time Out” was the first jazz album to…

Read More

No Shoot

04/11/2013

Rather than requiring gun-training, fingerprinting, outlawing assault weapons or “large” ammunition magazines or limiting the number of guns you can buy/day, instead require gun buyers to post a $10,000 bond for each gun purchased, and if the gun is involved…

Read More

Driving Sales

04/10/2013

Last week automakers reported sales of 15.3 million, up from a low of 9.0 million in February 2009. The rise is due in part to ultra-low interest rates, but also to both a rapidly aging fleet and longer loan terms.…

Read More

Souring Cyprus

04/09/2013

The recent $13 billion bailout (60% of GDP) made by the IMF, ECB, and European Commission to Cyprus does not solve problems, it just delays them. With a post bailout debt-to-GDP burden of 140%, an economy that will shrink 20%…

Read More

Less Work

04/08/2013

US employment peaked in 1/08 at 138.1 million. Employment then fell to a low of 129.3 million in 2/10, a loss of 8.8 million jobs. Today 46 months after the end of the recession, employment is 135.2 million, 2.9 million…

Read More

Bad Booze

04/05/2013

The Friday File: Due to skyrocketing demand and fixed supply of bourbon, rather than raising the price, the distiller of Maker’s Mark is reducing its alcoholic content by 7%! While most customers won’t notice, those that do will buy better…

Read More

March For Jobs

04/04/2013

March employment numbers come out tomorrow and they will disappoint. ADP reported weak private sector job growth numbers yesterday, first time unemployment claims that came out this morning and were on the high end and sequestration will probably knock off…

Read More

Recent Posts

Categories

Archives