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MEMORIAL MEMORY

05/23/2025

The Friday File: While Memorial Day is now about cookouts and travel, it’s the national holiday honoring military personnel who died defending our freedom. It was first recognized as “Decoration Day” in 1868, shortly after the Civil War. In 1971,…

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PASSWORD PROBLEMS

12/13/2024

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…

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RISING RATE

09/26/2024

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…

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BRILLIANT BOB

07/19/2024

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…

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VALUABLE VAULTING

04/27/2024

The Friday File: On 4/20/24, Swedish pole vaulter Mario Duplantis broke his world record, clearing 6.24m, 20.47ft. The old record was 6.23m. Duplantis gets a check of up to $100,000 whenever he breaks the record. The great Ukrainian pole vaulter…

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REALTOR RATES

04/11/2024

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…

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BRUISED BALTIMORE

03/27/2024

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…

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