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The Friday File: With 2025 almost here, let’s resolve to improve the passwords we use. To that end, here are the ten most popular passwords, all of which should be avoided. #10 is abc123, then 12345, followed by (wait for it) 12345678, and password1. In sixth, 123456789, then qwerty1, qwerty123, and #3 is password. Second…

From 2010 until Covid, the neutral rate, the Fed funds rate that was neither expansionary nor contractionary, was near zero and rarely exceeded 2%. Many expect that going forward, the neutral rate will be systemically higher. The combination of a shrinking labor force, a decline in trade/globalization, increased defense spending, the high cost of decarbonization,…

The Friday File: On Thursday, my favorite comedian Bob Newhart died. His 1961 record “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart (which I remember vividly) quickly led to “The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back. At one point they were #1 and #2 in the Billboard album chart! In 1961 he won a Grammy for Album of the…

The current average U.S. real estate commission is 5.49%. The listing agent receives an average of 2.83% while the buyer’s agent receives 2.66%. For a $400,000 home, that works out to a commission of $21,960. Hawaii has the lowest average commission at 4.78% followed by Utah at 4.90%. The state with the highest average commission…

The accidental destruction of the critical Francis Scott Key Bridge has rendered the Port of Baltimore unusable indefinitely. The Port is the 11th largest by container imports with 559,000/year 20-foot equivalent units. LA/Long Beach is tops at 8.2 million, then NY/NJ at 4 million, and Savannah at 2.4 million. Supply chains will manage, Baltimore will…