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In a hopeful sign for the economy, gross gaming revenues rose 4.8% in 2012 to $37.34 billion, and are now (not accounting for inflation or Native American casinos) just $180 million below the all-time high of $37.52 billion set in…
The Friday File: In August, houses with pools sell for about 0.2% more than homes without pools while in May, June and July pools add just 0.1%, half as much. Conversely, from November through March, swimming pools reduce house prices…
Running low on foreign reserves, Argentina is making it increasingly difficult for Argentines to purchase US dollars, which has widened the gap between the official exchange-rate and the black-market rate. And that has caused Argentines to make offshore purchases with…
The Brown-Vitter proposal to force banks with assets over $500 billion to hold roughly double the capital of smaller banks, is overly simplistic. Big banks should be forced to hold extra capital to eliminate any “Too Big to Fail” funding…
Since the previous GDP peak in 12/07, real GDP has risen 3.18% or about $400 billion, yet total employment is down by 2.07% or about 2.9 million persons. This is because today’s workers are more productive. How much more? In…
Despite residential construction being on the mend, its contribution to GDP is tiny. During Q1 2013, the value of new single family construction was just $157 billion, or 0.98% of GDP, while residential improvements contributed $161 billion or 1%. This…
The Friday File: Every percentage point increase in state income taxes faced by free-agent baseball players raises their salary by $22,500/year. By contrast, the same tax increase reduces slightly the average skill level of free-agent basketball player signings. It’s because…
Since 3/12 the unemployment rate has fallen 0.6%, and the labor-force participation rate (LFPR) has fallen by 0.5%. If by 3/14 the LFPR falls another 0.5%, it would take only 107,000 new jobs/month to get the unemployment rate down another…
Next week the European Central Bank will finally lower its key interest by a quarter-point to 0.5%, as the euro-region recession continues. Most importantly, Germany, Europe’s largest economy, may now officially be in recession and business confidence is slumping. Meanwhile,…
Three weeks ago, the United Nations voted to link arms sales to the human rights record of the buyers. While superficially appealing, this treaty is worthless. The treaty only covers exports (not imports), countries that didn’t vote for the treaty…