70 Words

Lowly Lobbyists

11/26/2014

Abe Lincoln signed a Presidential Proclamation declaring Thanksgiving the last Thursday in November starting in 1863. After lobbying by the Retail Dry Goods Association, FDR proclaimed Thanksgiving to be next to last Thursday in November 1939/1940/1941 to lengthen the holiday…

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Mediocre Movement

11/25/2014

With Q3 GDP growth just revised up to 3.9% and Q2 GDP growth at 4.6%, the last six months have been the best stretch of GDP growth in over a decade. But year-over-year growth is still just 2.4%, compensation growth…

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Sino Slowing

11/24/2014

As China’s economy slows, many are overly complacent and point to $4 trillion in foreign reserves that can always be spent to cushion any downturn. The problem is repatriating those funds would mean selling US Dollars and buying Chinese Yuan.…

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Music Mad

11/21/2014

The Friday File: 77% of all revenue from recorded music goes to the top 1% of bands and solo artists. The 10 best-selling tracks now generate 82% more sales than 10 years ago, while the top 10 songs receive twice…

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Dynamic Data

11/20/2014

While the rest of the planet economically cools or worse, goes into reverse, today’s data shows that the US economy is doing well. First-time weekly claims for unemployment insurance fell and are remarkably low, existing home sales rose 1.5% and…

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FHA Fix

11/19/2014

The annual FY14 FHA audit finds that it went from having net worth of negative $1.1 billion to positive $4.8 billion and now has a capital reserve of 0.41%, or a leverage ratio of 243! Because of this “success” some…

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Nervous Nippon

11/18/2014

With Q3 Japanese GDP growth coming in at -0.4%, Japan is back in recession for the third time since the end of the Great Recession. Amazingly, since the start of 2010, Japan has been in recession 47% of the time…

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Immigration Idiocy

11/17/2014

President Obama’s looming decision to grant amnesty to millions of illegals via Executive Order following a political drubbing is incomprehensible. It suggests Obama believes he can’t pass immigration reform through legislation, and is willing to deprive the next president the…

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Relaxing Riches

11/14/2014

The Friday File: Between 1976 and 2000, Americans used an average of 20.3 vacation days/year. Since then, it’s steadily declined and now stands at just 16 days/year. As some of the unused days cannot be paid out, banked or rolled…

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Tired Trade

11/13/2014

While US exports are weakening, don’t worry. Exports account for just 14% of US GDP, less than for any other developed nation. Exports account for 30% of Canadian GDP, 51% of German GDP, 15% of Japanese GDP, and 53% of…

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