Posts Tagged ‘Elliot eisenberg’
Hot Lots
In a move to streamline operations and cash in on the home building renaissance, Weyerhauser is selling its home-building unit. The prize, 27,000 lots including 18,000 in market-constrained litigation happy California, mostly in L.A. and San Diego. Assuming no goodwill, if the home-building unit sells for $3 billion, that’s just $110,000/lot. At $4 billion it’s…
Read MoreFired, Not Hired
Healthy labor markets consist of many things including low rates of involuntary termination and high rates of hiring. Usually they’re highly correlated. Not now. First time unemployment insurance claims at 332,000/week are at levels last seen in 11/07 before the Great Recession. Yet total hires at 4.2 million in June are now where they were…
Read MoreWe’re #2!
The Friday File: Mexico, where 32.8% of the adult population is obese (BMI of 30 or higher), has edged out the US where 31.8% of the population is obese. The tragedy is that in Mexico, obesity is frequently associated with malnourishment. On the other end of the scale is Japan, where just 4.5% of adults…
Read MoreMileage Miscalculation
Automobile regulation that improves fuel efficiency raises the price of new cars. That in turn raises the price of used cars, as some buyers avoid higher new car costs by buying used ones. This unsurprisingly reduces the number of used cars that get scrapped. And since used cars have worse gas mileage than new ones,…
Read MoreFly Away
Despite allowing Delta to buy Northwest, United to buy Continental, and Southwest to buy AirTran, the Department of Justice has come down hard against the US Airways-American merger. Years ago the industry was hemorrhaging money and it was in everyone’s interest to have a stable and profitable airline industry. Now that it is, reduced competition…
Read MoreDeclining Deficit
As of 7/31/13, the FY2013 federal budget deficit was $607 billion, down from $973 billion on 7/31/12, and the full year FY13 deficit is projected to be $759 billion, down from $1.089 trillion last year. Revenues to date are up $278 billion, while outlays are down $88 billion. The deficit as a percent of GDP…
Read MoreHot Rod
The Friday File: Last month a virtually pristine 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196R racing car sold for $29.6 million, shattering the previous record of $16.39 million for the most expensive car ever sold. The car was driven by the late Argentine racing great Juan Manuel Fangio, who won 45% of the races he entered and five world…
Read MoreTerrible Tactics
The GOP threat to close the government on 10/1 if the 2014 budget contains any funding for Obamacare is laughable. Obama will veto any bill that defunds his signature achievement and a veto override is impossible as it requires a two-thirds majority in both chambers. Moreover, dare I remind anyone, the most recent attempt to…
Read MoreBoys and Girls
The Friday File: In the US there are 105 boys born for every 100 girls. Older mothers give birth to more girls. By age 40, women give birth to 104 boys for every 100 girls and with each successive birth the probability of having a girl increases. By the seventh birth there are 103 boys…
Read MoreWeek that Was
With the July consumer sentiment number rising to 85.1, it’s now at its highest level since 7/07, and way up from its all time low of 55.3 set in 11/08. Add to that a sharp rise in non-defense durable goods orders, a rise in home prices, and a tiny rise in first-time unemployment claims, entirely…
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