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Over the weekend, Bitcoin hit $11,780/coin. Bitcoin finished 2016 at $968.23, and YTD is up 1,200%, yes, twelve mindboggling hundred percent. In terms of currency in circulation, the US dollar leads with $1.5 trillion, followed by the euro at $1.2…

The Friday File: Of the 195 nations on Earth, 33% get their name from some older group of persons. For example, France is named after the Franks. 25% are named from an aspect of the land; Costa Rica means “the…

Neither the House or Senate tax plans will meaningfully boost long-run economic growth, but both will substantially boost future deficits and debt. Despite lower corporate taxes, growth will be stymied by a full employment economy, resulting in higher inflation and…

The yield spread between 10-yr and 1-yr Treasuries has shrunk from a post-recession peak of 3.4 percentage points to just 0.70 percentage points. The problem is in prior Fed rate rising cycles, the yield on the 10-yr rose as faster…

The personal savings rate fell to just 3.1% in September, its lowest level since 12/07, the start of the Great Recession. The decline is undoubtedly being caused by record gains in household net worth. As a percent of disposable income,…

By all indications, Mexico just recently entered a recession. Business activity, sales growth, business confidence and industrial production are not only all declining but are in contractionary territory. Worse, equities are down 8% after peaking three months ago and GDP…

The Friday File: After tweeting/retweeting about 200 times/month in January and February, President Trump’s tweeting fell to a low of 150 in April. Since then, he has upped his game. In July, President Trump’s tweets hit 400 for the first…

This year, the average cost of a full Thanksgiving dinner for 10 persons is $49.12; 75 cents or 1.5% lower than last year, 3% lower inflation-adjusted, and the lowest inflation-adjusted price since 2010. The priciest inflation-adjusted Thanksgiving repast was $62.40…

Last year, 2.6 million Americans died. Of those, 5,219 had estates large enough, greater than $5.49 million/person, to pay estate tax. Doubling the exempted amount to $11 million/person, which the Senate proposes, would reduce the number of taxable estates to…

While housing starts in October rose 13.7% compared to September, they remain 2.9% below the level of 10/16, and are up just 5.8% YTD. Technically, it’s because multifamily activity is down roughly 10% YTD. That’s because multifamily activity has returned…