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Tragically, 38.6 million persons have lost jobs since mid-March. While that number will grow over the next 6 weeks, it is slowing and should hopefully plateau by July. Thus, initial unemployment claims is no longer the key labor number. Rather,…
Since peaking in 2007 at six billion tons, US carbon dioxide emissions have steadily fallen and were roughly 5 billion tons in 2019, a level first breached in the late 1980s. Falling coal consumption, from a peak of 1,150 million…
April housing starts came in at 891,000, down 29.7% Y-o-Y and a level last consistently seen in 2013, but through April starts are up 3.7% YTD. Starts will probably be down Y-o-Y for the next four or five months but…
In a proposed merger that regulators must prevent, Uber Technologies is trying to acquire Grubhub for $6 billion. Grubhub competes directly with Uber subsidiary Uber Eats. The combined firm would control slightly more than half of the third-party meal delivery…
The Friday File: Back in the heyday of TV 1955-2000, when there were growing numbers of local TV affiliates, the average TV series lasted two years and had about 20 episodes/year. With the rise of streaming and away from syndication,…
The unemployment rate for those with less than a HS diploma is now a staggering 21.2%, up from just 5.2% at the end of 2019. For those with a HS diploma, the respective numbers are 17.2%, up from 3.7% in…
US higher education will soon suffer a raft of smaller college closures. This is due to endowments and endowment income being down, sports revenue being nonexistent, and refunds being up due to Covid-19 campus closures. Add in tax revenue declines,…
In 20Q1, US GDP fell 4.8% on an annualized basis; 1.2% on a quarterly basis. In 20Q2, I expect US GDP to fall by 30% annualized, or 7.5% on a quarterly basis. Combined, the GDP decline in 20H1 totals 8.7%.…
The 20.5 million job losses in April wiped out a decade of job gains and are ten times the previous record monthly job loss of 2 million set in 11/45. The only silver lining, 18 million of those losing their…
The Friday File: While sales of paper products and comfort foods spiked in March and early April, they’re returning to normal. Not so for alcohol! For the five weeks ending 4/18, retail sales are up an average of 24%, with…