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While the Trump administration inexplicably works overtime to stop the vertical AT&T/Time Warner merger, the bigger question is will the DOJ fight the more troubling horizontal T-Mobile/Sprint merger? The firms argue, with some supporting data, that the merger will indeed…
Inflation-adjusted median household income rose to $61,372 in 2017, up 1.8% from 2016, and up smartly from the 2012 cyclical trough of $54,569. Despite the recent rise, median income is not meaningfully higher than the 1999 pre-recession peak of $60,062.…
The Friday File: When legal weed stores first opened in WA in 7/14, the average price/gram was $32.48. By 1/1/15, it was $21.07, by 1/1/16, $12.32, and by 9/18 $7.45, and it’ll get cheaper. The price initially fell because it…
10 years after Lehman Brothers failed, risk has migrated. In 2008, the six largest banks had $9 trillion in assets; the four largest asset managers, $5 trillion. Today, the same banks have $10 trillion, but the same four lightly regulated…
Elliot was the keynote speaker at the 2018 New Mexico Housing Summit sponsored by the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority in Albuquerque, September 12, 2018. Listen to the podcast interview Elliot did with Santa Fe radio before:
Here’s how Hurricane Florence will impact economic data: initially, weekly first-time unemployment claims will rise, with the amount of the increase quickly telling us the hurricane severity. September auto sales will fall, but October sales will spike due to buyers…
Y-o-Y job openings are up 11.9%, hires are up just 3.3%, and the number hired has declined three months in a row. Moreover, job openings exceed the number of unemployed by 659,000; they surpassed zero for the first time in…
August’s employment growth of 201,000 was strong, and employment growth over the last three months of 185,000/month is slightly above the CY2017 pace of 182,000. Better yet, wage growth rose 2.9% Y-o-Y, its fastest pace since mid-2009, and the broadest…
The Friday File: Among persons over 69, 10% have a tattoo; 13% of those 51-69 have body art. For those 36-50, 36% have a tat and for persons 18 to 35 it’s 47%. Moreover, the percentage of persons with two…
YTD, the US trade deficit is $337.9 billion, a record high, and up $22 billion compared to January through July of 2017. The widening deficit is likely to reduce Q3GDP by almost a percentage point. The drivers of the widening…