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The Saudis export seven million bbl/day of oil, and their budget is balanced at $106/bbl. At $60/bbl, Saudi Arabia’s budget deficit is $118 billion/year: 12.7% of GDP! Saudi Arabia has foreign reserves of $750 billion to help withstand this. But…

The Friday File: 21% of Americans have at least one tattoo, up from 15% during the middle of the last decade. 26% of persons in the West have one, compared to 21% in the East and Midwest, and just 18%…

Between 2002 and 2012, real median incomes of the 16% of US households headed by someone without a high school diploma fell at an average annual rate of 2.4%. Among the 51% of households with a high school diploma but…

In her press conference today, Fed Chairwoman Yellen clearly provided the Fed with more flexibility regarding interest rates. With GDP growth firming, unemployment falling and inflation benign, Yellen is hinting at maybe earlier but probably incrementally smaller rate hikes. And…

OPEC’s decision to push oil prices down assumes that lower prices reduce the supply of oil. However, unlike most natural resources, the marginal cost of producing another barrel of oil is low, once a well is drilled. Thus, oil pumping…

While a strong brew of internecine party politics and special interest lobbying appears to have made passage of the FY 2015 budget difficult, don’t be deceived. The budget battle is over the stagnant $1.1 trillion discretionary portion of the budget.…

The Friday File: The college football playoff final-four was designed to let the top four teams (Alabama, Oregon, Florida State, Ohio State) play to determine a winner, rather than relying on dubious polls. The top four played 13 games each…

Unemployment in the Eurozone is at a sky-high 11.5% (its peak here was 10%), annual inflation is running at a microscopic 0.3% matching a five year low and is expected to fall further. Worse, manufacturing activity is stalling and is…

In a shrewd move the Fed will impose added capital requirements on the nation’s biggest banks. The additional capital will penalize banks that rely heavily on short-term funding. This will force these banks to hold more capital and reduce their…

In 2013, US CO2 emissions increased by 2.5%. Emissions are a function of four variables: population, GDP/person, energy intensity and CO2 intensity. Population growth boosted emissions by 0.7%, rising GDP/person boosted emissions by 1.5%, energy intensity surprisingly rose by 0.5%…