Posts Tagged ‘Elliot eisenberg’
Wishing for Wages
While the economic recovery will soon enter its fifth year, wage growth is invisible. In part, it’s because unemployment is high, but also because more and more jobs are in leisure/hospitality and retail. These two sectors now account for 21% of US employment, yet pay just $13/hour and $16/hour respectively. Manufacturing pays $23/hour, yet employs…
Read MoreHappy Housing
Between 1998 and 2002, before the housing market went haywire, total housing starts averaged 1.65 million units and the population of the US averaged 282 million persons. Over the next five years the US population will average about 320 million. As a result, I expect housing starts to steadily rise to a plateau of about…
Read MoreSugar High
To prevent defaults by sugar processors that borrowed $862 million under a government price-support system, the USDA may purchase 400,000 tons of sugar to prop up prices. Sugar has fallen 18% to 21.03 cents/lb since the loans were made last October. Higher sugar prices would naturally lead to higher food prices. Yeah! The world price…
Read MoreCash Crunch
The Cyprus fiasco shows us two things. First, countries that don’t issue their own currency simply cannot guarantee bank deposits as they have no control over their monetary policy. It also shows that monetary unions cannot survive bank runs. The upshot, there will now be a calls for a euro-wide bank regulator (like the FDIC)…
Read MoreStrong Week
Retail sales jumped a strong 0.4%, even after subtracting high gas prices, higher building material prices, and autos and groceries. Industrial production was up and is nearing its pre-recession peak and the four-week moving average of initial weekly unemployment claims is at its lowest level in five years. Inflation continues to be benign. The only…
Read MoreLeapin’ Leprechauns
The Friday File: On St. Patrick’s Day we drink 1% of all beer consumed in America, which equals 1.62 pints per/person, so drink up! 34.5 million Americans claim Irish ancestry which is seven times the population of Ireland. The total value of Irish imports to the US is $39.4 billion and it takes 40 pounds…
Read MoreMinimal Migration
Youth unemployment in Spain is 56%, in Greece it is 58%, while in Germany it’s 8%. This should cause a mass influx of youth from these peripheral countries to Germany. Surprisingly, it’s not. Between 1/12 and 6/12 just 3,900 Spaniards and 6,900 Greeks made their way to Germany. Here in States, large unemployment rate differences…
Read MorePollution Problems
The amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide emitted in 2011 rose by 3% (a billion tons) from 2010 to 38.2 billion tons. Of the planet’s top 10 polluters, only the USA and Germany reduced emissions. China emitted 10 billion tons, up from nine billion in 2010, followed by the USA at 5.9 billion, India at 2.5,…
Read MoreWork? No Thanks
While the February unemployment rate eased from 7.92% to 7.74%, 40% of the fall resulted from a decline in the civilian labor force of 130,000 due to both the weak economy and retiring Boomers. As a result, the labor force participation rate hit a new cyclical low of 63.5%, a level last seen in 9/81…
Read MoreFisher at the Fed?
With Bernanke’s term at the Fed up in January, Obama will have to name a successor. That person should be Stan Fisher. In addition to having an outstanding record as Governor of the Bank of Israel, he’s a skilled diplomat, regulator and politician and a brilliant economist. Moreover, with the UK snaring Bank of Canada…
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