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With debts exceeding $300 billion, 2% of Chinese GDP, Evergrande’s likely Thursday bankruptcy won’t be pretty. But it isn’t a short-term Lehman moment. Chinese banks are in good shape and can absorb losses, and if some can’t, Beijing will bail…

Long-term capital gains are currently taxed at 20% and upon death there is tax-free step-up in basis, allowing heirs to only pay taxes on gains that occur after the original owner’s death. There’s now talk of raising long-term capital gains…

While clearly destructive, the US economy is proving surprisingly resilient against the Delta variant. August M-o-M retail sales rose a strong 0.7%, initial weekly unemployment claims just hit their two lowest readings since the pandemic, and manufacturing activity is steadily…

The Friday File: While there is great debate about why yawning occurs, it appears that brain weight and yawn duration are highly correlated and the number of cortical neurons, a measure of brain complexity and yawn duration are spectacularly correlated.…

From the housing bust until the pandemic, home prices in neighborhoods within a 10- or 20-minute commute to the city center appreciated more quickly than more distant areas. Covid-19 has reversed that as people have moved further away yet almost…

The CPI rose 0.9% M-o-M in June, 0.5% in July and just 0.3% in August. Similar Y-o-Y numbers show inflation declining from 4.5% in June to 4.2% in July and 4% in August, a nice decline! But, trimmed measures of…

In the years leading up to the 2008/09 Housing Bust, the monthly US trade deficit regularly hit $70 billion/month, or $840 billion/year. At the time, that was a whopping 6% of GDP. Now, the US trade deficit is running at…

Non-marital childbearing has increased significantly among women of all educational levels. Over the last quarter-century however, the largest increase is among college-educated women 32-38. In 1996, the percentage was 4%, today it is 24.5%. Among women 32-38 with only a…

The Friday File: The shortest city name in 28 states has three letters; in 17 states it has four letters. Here is where it gets interesting. In three states, CT (Derby), DE (Dover) and NH (Dover), the shortest city name…

177.4 million Americans have been fully vaccinated, 53.4% of the population. 40 million cases of Covid-19 have been reported. Assuming no one gets Covid-19 twice, that 53.4% of those testing positive for Covid-19 are vaccinated, and that reported cases are…