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While the final draft of the Republican tax-code rewrite improves its treatment of housing, the gains are superficial. This is because the standard deduction is being doubled, making itemizing largely irrelevant. And, while state and local income taxes will remain…

The Friday File: Tonight is the fourth night of Hanukkah, or Festival of Lights, and the 2,184th time this holiday is being celebrated. The tallest menorah, or candelabra, was 60 feet high, weighed 37,500 lbs, and was located in Latrun,…

In 1960, in 14.6% of marriages husbands had more education than wives. The reverse was the case 7.1% of the time. The remaining 78.3% of marriages had spouses of equal education. This imbalance peaked in 1980 when in 23% of…

The number of times the Fed boosts rates a quarter-point in 2018 will depend entirely on GDP growth and inflation. If both perk up, expect four hikes, if they both remain weak, expect two. The low and falling unemployment rate…

With competition already brutal in the ride-hailing sector – Uber lost almost $1.5 billion in 17Q3 – competition looks to get still more intense. Google is planning to employ as many as 24,000 autonomous vehicles, while GM and other big…

Employment growth was 228,000 in November and is averaging 170,000 jobs since August. The key takeaways: the job market is very strong, and growth is well distributed with solid gains across all education levels! The hurricanes have left no traces,…

The Friday File: This week, the World Memory Championships are being held. The reigning world champion is American Alex Mullen. He holds the world record for the longest sequence of numbers memorized in an hour at 3,029, cards in an…

As of 2015, there were 13 states that sent more money to Washington than they received in federal spending. The sums include federal salaries, military contracts, Social Security payments, Medicaid, corporate and personal taxes and so on. The biggest loser,…

Shipments of recreational vehicles, towable or motorized, hit a then record 390,000/year in 1978. In the double-dip recession of the early 1980s, they cratered to 108,000. They then slowly rose again, reaching 390,000 in 2006, the peak of the Housing…

OPEC, Russia, and other countries controlling 60% of global crude production have extended their withholding of 1.8 million bbl/day of oil, 2% of output, from 3/31/18 to 12/31/18. The forces at play here are threefold; rising global GDP boosting demand…