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The economy created 390,000 jobs in May, the labor force participation rate recovered half of April’s decline, rising from 62.2% to 62.3%, and the female labor force participation rate hit a post-Covid high of 57%! Because the labor force grew…

The Friday File: The nation with the fifth most number of islands is, somewhat amazingly, the US with 18,600. Canada comes in fourth with 52,500 islands. In third, with 179,000 islands is Finland, in second is Norway at 239,000 and…

For the first time since 2014, the number of US births rose! In 2021, there were 3.66 million newborns, up 1% from 2020; the increase spanned all cohorts of women over 24. Births remain at very low levels after peaking…

While higher crude oil prices are partly why gasoline is so expensive, it’s only part of the story. The bigger reason is a lack of global refining capacity. Since Covid-19, about three million bbl/day of refining capacity has been permanently…

The Fed’s recently released annual Economic Well-Being of US Households 2021 report shows US households in better shape than at any time since the Survey commenced in 2013. 78% of households reported living comfortably, up from 75% in 2020, the…

The Friday File: Last week, at auction, a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe sold for $142 million. This price nearly triples the previous auto auction record of $48.4 million, set in 2018, for a 1962 Ferrari GTO. Yes, the…

US CO2 emissions rose steadily from a recession trough of 4.4 billion metric tons in 1983 to 6.0 Bmt in 2007. Since, they have steadily fallen, bottoming in 2020, due to Covid-19, at 4.6 Bmt, the same level as 1984.…

April new home sales dropped 7% M-o-M, and 27% Y-o-Y to an annual rate of just 591,000, the lowest level since 4/20, the worst of the pandemic. Moreover, for sale new home inventory has skyrocketed from 4.7 months in 4/21…

Canadian mortgage rates have risen from 1.5% last fall to 4% now, a 12-year high. This has resulted in April home sales dropping 27% M-o-M and 41.2% Y-o-Y in Toronto. While prices are up 15% Y-o-Y, they are down from…

In March and April, the CPI was above 8% Y-o-Y. Since 1950, this has only occurred in 1951, 1974, and 1979-1981. Inflation this bad is rare. Fortunately, it will probably decline to 4%/year by mid-2023 as supply problems ebb and…