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The Friday file: While Americans own 96 million cats and 83 million dogs, more families have dogs than cats. It’s is because 70% of dog owners have just one dog, while just 45% of cat owners have a single cat.…
After expanding at an annualized pace of 4.1% in Q3 and 2.4% in Q4, expect Q1 GDP to come in below 1.5% and that’s an improvement based on stronger March data. Q1 will be weak because of dismal weather, very…
While hostilities along the Ukraine-Russian border appear to be heating up, expect markets to ignore it. Absent direct US or EU involvement, this conflict has virtually no relevance to western markets. This is similar to Syria, where once US involvement…
In 2013, federal government receipts (think taxes) totaled $2.778 trillion, while spending was $3.455 trillion, resulting in a 2013 deficit of $679.5 billion– 4.1% of GDP. The largest deficit ever was in 1943 during WWII when inflation adjusted; receipts were…
With an increase of 4.5 billion barrels of crude oil in 2012, America’s proven reserves are now 33 billion barrels, their highest level since 1976 and have been rising since 2009. Moreover, the increase in reserves in 2012 was the…
The Friday File: In 1960, among married couples 21% of the time one spouse was better educated than the other; two-thirds of the time it was the husband. By 1990, 38% of married couples were unequally educated and 60% of…
For the 12 months ending 1/31/14, S&P 500 firms spent $478 billion buying back outstanding shares, and in the quarter ending 1/31/14 spending on buybacks rose 29% compared to a year earlier. Seems the higher the stock price, the more…
Policies that didn’t help the economy recover from the Great Recession include tax credits for business investment and the first-time home buyer credit which didn’t exclude new homes as they incentivized new construction when there already was excess plant and…
While hoping for a change of regime in Iran that forswears nuclear weapons is a lovely idea, it’s not policy. Rather, for diplomacy to work with a recalcitrant partner such as Iran, you need a continuous coercive element. As such,…
Two caveats from last Friday’s decent labor report. First, rising temp employment, formerly a leading indicator of full-time employment, is no longer. Since 4/10, the number of temp workers is up 58%, while overall employment growth is up 7.8%. Second,…