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The Friday File: Among fast casual hamburger chains, Five Guys is most expensive at over $9/cheese burger, followed by Shake Shack and Smashburger at $7. With fries, Five Guys approaches $15, Shack Shake is over $11, and Smashburger just over…

Somewhat counterintuitively, medical procedure price transparency appears to slightly raise prices. Transparency does not impact the quality of service, and most critically and quite troublingly, does not increase consumer price shopping. This result of higher prices is strongest for low-cost…

During the Tech craze peak, the equity share of household assets was almost 32%. Today it’s 34%. Similarly, the equity share of household financial assets has risen from a peak of 45% during the dotcom boom to 50% today. Moreover,…

In a move both totally expected and utterly shocking, Nvidia’s shares gained 3.2% in mid-day trading, boosting its market capitalization to $3.33 trillion, edging ahead of Microsoft at $3.32 trillion, and Apple at $3.28 trillion. To put this into perspective,…

There is some talk of replacing 100% of income tax revenue with tariffs on foreign goods entering the US. This will be hard to do. In FY2023 corporate and individual income taxes totaled $2.6 trillion, excluding payroll taxes. Total imports…

The Friday File: While Coca-Cola is by far the single most popular carbonated U.S. drink with a market share of 19.18%, there is a spirited fight for second. After climbing steadily for 20 years, Dr. Pepper, invented in 1885, is…

At the most recent Fed meeting, eight members expect there to be two 25bps cuts by 12/24, seven expect one, and four expect none. The median is one cut, the mode is two, and fifteen of nineteen, only 12 of…

Inflationary pressures continued ebbing in May with the CPI unchanged (0.0%) M-o-M and up 3.3% Y-o-Y, down from 3.4% Y-o-Y in April. More importantly, core-CPI rose 0.2% M-o-M compared to 0.3% in April and 3.4% Y-o-Y, both the mildest gains…

Pre-Covid, consumer credit grew by $15 billion/month and remained that way through 12/21. During CY2022, consumer credit growth jumped to $30 billion/month, but since 1/23 growth has steadily weakened and is now about $5 billion/month. Moreover, credit card balances declined…

The establishment survey reported May net new jobs of 272,000, way more than expected, and wages up 0.4% M-o-M and 4.1% Y-o-Y, both slightly hot. However, the household survey showed the labor force participation rate falling to 62.5%, the unemployment…