70 Words
While the Fed has been right to keep rates low because inflation has been totally benign for years, that doesn’t mean they will start raising rates at the right moment. They would much prefer to raise rates late and be…
Should Argentina not pay its bondholders by Friday, it will default for the second time in 13 years. Argentina is paying investors who swapped their previously-defaulted bonds for new, less valuable bonds, but isn’t paying investors who refused the swap.…
The Friday File: Since recreational marijuana first became legal in Colorado on 1/1/14, an estimated 485,000 Coloradans, or 9% of the state’s population of 5.4 million, consume marijuana at least once a month. Of those 485,000 consumers, 30% or 145,500…
Prior to the recession, the average homeowner’s equity percentage in their home was 60%. That percentage is now 53.64% and has been rising steadily since bottoming out at 36.6% in Q1/09. This suggests we are quite close to fully recovering.…
While existing home sales fell 2.3% in 6/14 to 5.04 million from 5.16 million a year earlier, don’t worry. Sales are at their highest level in eight months, and more importantly distressed sales are down from 15% of all sales…
Other than their collective animosity towards the World Bank and IMF, the five BRICS nations, despite having little in common, being geopolitical rivals, and disagreeing on fundamental issues, have created a Shanghai-based Development Bank. While undercapitalized, the Bank’s major role…
While the labor market, consumer spending, and capital expenditures are slowly improving, net exports are slightly weakening. When the Great Recession began, exports were flat while imports collapsed as our economy weakened much faster than the rest of the globe.…
The Friday File: Since 1974, there have been almost 90,000 reported UFO sightings worldwide, most in the USA! Washington State is number one in sightings per capita (and number two in total sightings behind California) followed closely by Montana and…
Today’s housing numbers stank! Starts for Jan-June 2014 are up 6% compared to 2013, single-family starts up 1%! Multifamily is up 18%. With these numbers a premature rate hike will kill single-family construction. Yes, weather was bad, prices are up,…
Tax inversion deals, where a US firm buys a foreign-based firm in a low tax nation and then locates the merged firm’s headquarters overseas, are particularly appealing for drug and computer chip makers. It’s because both generate substantial overseas profits…