70 Words
While the US economy is not great, be grateful you don’t live in Greece. Unemployment there is 27.4%, youth unemployment is a staggering 58% and car registrations are down 80%. This is because GDP is in its fifth straight year…
Read MoreThe Friday File: Plants and pests naturally evolve in an arms race of resistance and conquest that usually has no winners. But grafted trees, because they don’t reproduce sexually, are genetically identical to each other and thus never evolve. However,…
Read MoreGiven a widening trade deficit, disappointing retail sales, weak inventory accumulation and now yesterday’s surprisingly bad housing starts at just 836,000 units, I’m reducing my Q2 GDP estimate to just 1%. Interestingly, single-family starts, 2-4 unit starts, and 5+ starts…
Read MoreThe recent Chinese cash crunch was a sign from the government of its intention to reign in credit growth to the shadow banking system, wasteful local governments and speculators. Part of the problem is that Chinese banks can’t offer competitive…
Read MoreWhile the Senate is indeed broken, preventing the minority from filibustering presidential nominees to the executive branch will make things worse by beginning to turn the Senate into the House, where the minority party has no power. The Senate must…
Read MoreAll interest rate increases aren’t created equal. A rise in 10-year treasury rates from 2%, where they are now, to 3% or 4% is a sign of improving business conditions and opportunities resulting from a strengthening economy. By contrast, a…
Read MoreThe Friday File: The 35 mile Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland will be the world’s longest rail tunnel when opened in 2016. Today, the world’s longest rail tunnel is the 33.5 mile Seikan Tunnel in Japan connecting the islands of…
Read MoreThe virtue of the gold standard was that countries with trade surpluses saw their gold holdings rise, which increased their money supply, raised prices and reduced exports. Conversely, countries that ran deficits lost gold, which caused their money supply to…
Read MoreConsumer borrowing rose by $19.6 billion last month, substantially more than the $12.5 billion forecast by economists (big surprise there) and up from $10.9 billion in May. Non-revolving debt, which includes car loans, student loans and mobile homes loans increased…
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