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Reducing the federal gas and diesel taxes from 18.4 cents/gallon and 24.4 cents/gallon, respectively, to zero for three months, would cost the Treasury $10 billion, and probably not much help consumers. That’s because the slightly lower price would boost demand…

May existing housing sales fell 8.6% Y-o-Y, have declined four months in a row, and are at the lowest May level since 2015 (except for 5/20). Inventories, while profoundly low, are edging up, and due to declining sales, months of…

The US airline with the highest costs excluding fuel is American; 12 cents/seat mile. In close second is Delta at about 11.5, and then United at 11. All are large legacy carriers with big networks, focused on high paying business…

The Friday File: Fifty years ago today, three DC police officers caught five burglars breaking into the Democratic National Campaign Committee in the iconic Watergate Building in Washington. Economically, from 1/1/73 through Richard Milhouse Nixon’s resignation on 8/8/74, the S&P…

Since the start of the Great Depression, there have been 22 bear markets, defined as a stock market decline of more than 20%. The average duration of those bear markets is 11 months. The median duration is eight months. The…

Earlier today, the Fed raised the Fed funds rate a whopping 75bps, three-quarters of a point, the steepest rate hike since 1994. After telegraphing for weeks that a 50bps hike was happening, the 75bps hike hurts their market guidance credibility…

Since 10/1/93, the federal gasoline tax has been 18.4 cents/gallon (24.4 cents/gallon on diesel). Gross gas tax revenues are about $45 billion/year with 60%, or $27 billion coming from gasoline ($18 billion from diesel). Thus, each penny of the gasoline…

CPI inflation rose a whopping 1% in May and is up 8.6% Y-o-Y, it’s fastest pace since 12/81! Worse, inflation is increasingly broad-based. Y-o-Y, groceries are up 11.9%, their fastest rise since 1979. Services, 45% of GDP, are rising at…

The Friday File: Ever wonder why ice cream stores and supermarkets have so many flavors? It’s because our tastes are wildly diverse. The most popular flavor of ice cream is, unsurprisingly, chocolate, but it has just a 14% market share!…

The recent plunge in Target, Walmart and other “defensive” type stocks that had been largely unscathed from the recent equity carnage occurred for three reasons: the ability of such firms to pass on price increases may have reached their limit,…