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

Because the national minimum wage has not been raised in 14 years, it is becoming increasingly irrelevant. In 2010, 1.8 million workers were earning exactly $7.25/hour and another 2.5 million were earning less, like tipped staff. In 2022, just 141,000…

While house prices declined from $410,200 in 6/23 to $406,700 in 7/23, don’t be fooled, that’s the highest July price ever and is up from $403,800 in 7/22. Similarly, while inventory ticked up from 1.08 months in 6/23 to 1.11…

During the Covid pandemic, Americans saved an additional $2.1 trillion above and beyond normal savings because of stimulus checks, an inability to travel and so on. Since August 2021, $1.9 trillion of that amount has been spent suggesting there remains…

Chalk it up to more powerful computers, or more data, but weather forecasting has drastically improved. For example, a five-day weather forecast today is as good as a three-day one 25 years ago, a seven-day forecast now is as good…

The Friday File: The movie Barbie has generated over $1 billion in non-inflation adjusted global box office sales, making Barbillion the first solo female-directed movie to cross this milestone. But Captain Marvel (2019) co-directed by Anna Boden had $1.131 billion…

July housing starts were at a seasonally adjusted annualized pace of 1,452,000, slightly below the four-year average of 1,489,000. Interestingly, house size keeps shrinking from a peak of 2,519 sq. ft. in 15Q1 to a 21Q4 post-Covid peak of 2,335…

In 23Q2, total household debt was $17.06 trillion, up trivially from $17.05 trillion in 23Q1. Compared to 19Q4 when it was $14.16 trillion, debt has risen $2.9 trillion, 21.3%. While that seems substantial, inflation from 19Q4 through 23Q2 was 17.6%,…

While July retail sales came in strong at 0.7% M-o-M, inflation-adjusted Y-o-Y growth was -0.12, the sixth straight month of Y-o-Y declines. Moreover, after reaching an inflation-adjusted 4/21 sales peak of $232.7 billion, sales have been flat since. Lastly, retail…

The delinquency rate for mortgages on one-to-four-unit properties fell to 3.37% at the end of 23Q2. That’s down 27bps Y-o-Y and is the lowest delinquency rate since record keeping began in 1979. The Y-o-Y conventional loan delinquency rate fell 35bps,…

The Friday File: The largest asteroid crater on Earth is the South African Vredefort Crater that measures 186 miles in diameter. The second largest is the Chicxulub Crater in Mexico with a diameter of 112 miles. Canada has the third…