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We are currently digging out of an economic recession and a suppression of economic activity resulting from government mandated Sheltering-in-Place. With suppression ending, the first part of the recovery, the most powerful part, is now occurring. But weakened corporate and…

Since QE1’s arrival during the Great Recession, the Fed has guided interest rates by buying bonds and offering forward guidance about when they expect to raise rates. The Fed is now considering adding another tool, yield curve control, where they…

During 4/20, US personal income rose 10.5%, its biggest jump ever. The rise was entirely due to the $1,200/$500 personal stimulus checks and the $600/week increase in unemployment insurance payments. Despite that, consumer spending still shrank by a record 13.6%…

First time claims for unemployment fell for the 10th straight week to a still painful 1.54 million/week vs. 220,000/week before the Coronavirus, but down from a high of 6.87 million the week ending 3/28/20. Moreover, continuing claims have been steady…

The Friday File: Currently, 36% of persons put two spaces after a period and before the next sentence, 64% put one space. While this practice is hotly debated, there is absolutely no evidence either method offers any advantage. The debate…

The official May unemployment rate was 13.3%, down from 14.7% in April. However, classification errors systematically lowered unemployment rates in March through May. After accounting for these errors, which the Census Bureau fully disclosed, the true unemployment rate in April…

Hotel occupancy is up for the seventh straight week, albeit from a staggeringly depressed level. For the week ending 5/30/20, US hotels enjoyed (if you can call it that) an occupancy rate of 36.6%, pushing weekly demand to about 11…

With so much fiscal and monetary stimulus coming from DC, unfounded fears of the US dollar losing its position as the world’s reserve currency have cropped up. There is no real competitor. To use metaphors, Europe is a beautiful museum,…

May’s employment growth of 2.5 million jobs, pushing unemployment to 13.3% from 14.7%, was terrific and implies hiring activity bottomed in April – a month earlier than expected – and the rise in the employment-to-population ratio from 51.3% to 52.8%…

The Friday File: The number of wisdom teeth removed in the US is 10,000,000/year! And with generally two teeth extracted at a time, that means 5,000,000 surgeries. At an average cost of $500/exodontia, that adds up to $5 billion/year. Separately,…