70 Words
The Friday File: Comparing the average asking price of a dog in the UK between March and September 2020 to the same period in 2019, the price rose from £888 ($1,161) to £1,883 ($2,462), an increase of 112%! By breed,…
While equity prices have rapidly recovered from their 3/20 lows, the recovery means much less for the economy than in the past. In 1973, publicly traded firms accounted for 41.4% of total non-farm payroll employment. That percentage was just 29%…
To spur growth, the Turkish Central Bank slashed rates and banks made cheap loans. The rate cut caused the lira to depreciate. To arrest that, the Central Bank sold $65 billion dollars and bought lira. But, simultaneously, households flush with…
While there is perpetual talk about increasing student subsidies to boost college attendance, the problem is schools will not increase enrollment. Thus, additional aid simply causes tuition inflation. Instead, push schools, via subsidies, to boost class sizes, with the subsidy…
The 8/20 US trade deficit hit $67 billion. After inflation, the deficit hasn’t been this high since 2008. Imports have largely recovered but not exports. This is because the US imports goods but primarily exports services, and visits by tens…
The Friday File: The state with the highest percentage of persons born in state of current residence is Louisiana at 77.6%, meaning 22.4% were born in another state or country. Michigan’s second at 76.2%, then Ohio at 74.7%. Mississippi is…
Over the next five to ten years, housing will enjoy a nice tailwind primarily due to demographics. With the youngest Millennials now 26, the demand for single-family units will steadily rise, but the Millennial’s inability to accumulate wealth due to…
The FY2020 (10/1/19-9/30/20) budget deficit of $3.1 trillion more than tripled from $984 billion in FY2019. As a share of GDP, the deficit rose from 4.6% to 15.2%, the largest since 1945. Revenues totaled $3.4 trillion, down just 1% from…
To reach herd immunity, 65% of the of the population needs to have Sars-Cov-2 immunity. If the initial vaccine is 80% effective, 81.25% of the population needs to be injected, assuming no one is initially immune. However, 35% of Americans…
Earlier today, the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to Americans Robert Wilson and Paul Milgrom, both professors at Stanford for their work in improving and designing auctions; a branch of game theory made famous by John (A Beautiful…