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During the 1980s, federal payments to individuals including Social Security and Medicare was 10% of GDP. From 1990 till the Housing Bust it was about 12%. During the Bust it hit 15%, but quickly fell and was 14.5% on the…

During 2/20, the unemployment rate was 3.5%. There were 5.7 million unemployed persons and the labor force, composed of those working and those looking for work, was 164.5 million. During 10/21, the unemployment rate was 4.6%, composed of 7.4 million…

In a sign of perhaps peaking inflation, annual wage growth declined from 4.2% to 4.1% in October, the first decline since 4/21, immediately prior to the recent dramatic run-up in inflation. Moreover, the decline was widespread, extending to hourly workers,…

Compared to 1/1/19, inflation-adjusted US purchases of services has fully recovered, great news. The problem: purchases of goods remain up by almost 20%! Apparently, Covid-19 habits die hard. The US economy is not suffering from anything resembling stagflation. Rather, we…

The Friday File: It turns out that, on average, we are more likeable than we think we are. The Liking Gap was first demonstrated in 2018. Researchers randomly paired persons for five-minute conversations after which each participant was asked to…

Montana and Virginia are the states with the highest percentage of veterans among their civilian population over 18, at over 10%! States with 8.0%-9.9% and going from west to east are WA, NV, ID, AZ, WY, NM, CO, ND, SD,…

As measured by the CPI, October inflation rose 6.2% Y-o-Y, the fastest pace since 1990 and the fifth month in a row above 5%. Similarly, core-inflation rose 4.6% Y-o-Y, its largest move since 1991. Inflation is rising rapidly because demand…

Apartment developers are on track in 2021 to create 20,100 new multifamily units from old office, hotel, and retail buildings, more than any time since 2010 and well up from the 2017 post housing-bust peak of 15,000. Currently, 41% of…

US employers added 531,000 jobs in October. Moreover, the lousy months of August and September were upwardly revised by 235,000, leaving the jobs number just 18.6%, or 4.2 million, below its pre-Covid-19 high. Unfortunately, the labor force grew by just…

The Friday File: In 2019, 127 billion metal cans were manufactured in the US, up 1.5% from 2018. 76% were for beverages, 24% were for canned food. In 2018, 22.7% of consumed vegetables were canned, down from a peak of…