Posts Tagged ‘Elliot’s Brief Blog’
Boycott Brings Benefit
Sorry about not blogging yesterday; I was floating in the Dead Sea. As for the cottage cheese boycott; it’s over. Two days ago the largest dairy in Israel caved in to the nation-wide boycott and reduced the price by 21%. Not surprisingly hours later the second biggest dairy followed suit and soon after that Tara…
Read MoreBooming Israeli Economy
The Israeli economy is booming! Unemployment is 6%, house prices are rising at a healthy clip and construction activity is ubiquitous. In 2 days, I have counted over 100 over cranes in use and new multifamily construction is literally, skyrocketing. The city of Modi’in, halfway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem has a population of 90,000;…
Read MoreCottage Cheese Boycott
Greetings from Jerusalem! Amazingly, the big issue here is the high cost of cottage cheese! An 8 oz tub costs $2, twice the price it is in Europe. Consumers are outraged and are boycotting all cottage cheese. The high price is the result of a panoply of monopolies and cartels that dominate a wide range…
Read MoreCar Rental Rationality?
Airlines and hotels charge cancellation fees but not car rental firm. Why? I think it’s because car renters usually arrive by plane and then go to a hotel. The car rental agency can thus free ride on the cancellation policies of the others. That is, to cancel the car you have to cancel your trip…
Read MoreNew House Sales Slide
You are in a whole new universe when existing and new housing sales slide 3.8% and 2.1% in a month and it’s treated as good news! The peak in new sales was 1.39 million in 7/05. The Median price of a new home fell to 222.6K, it’s just 166.5K for existing homes; a huge price…
Read MoreUnfunded Liabilities
Advanced economies with aging populations have made lavish spending promises that are unafforadable absent huge tax increases. In Canada the “unfunded” amount is 7 times GDP. In Korea it is 6.8, in Spain it is 6.5, here in the USA it’s 5, in Australia it’s 4.8, in the UK 3.3, in Germany 2.8. France 2.7,…
Read MoreMoral Hazard
Ideally Greece would leave the Euro, default on its debts, and get on with its economic existence. But, leaving the Euro would be a disaster for the Euro zone. So the Europeans won’t let it happen. Neither will the Chinese as they do not want the US Dollar to be the only reserve currency. Since…
Read MoreWeak in Review
Weak in Review: The latest jobless claims numbers are still troublesome. The key takeaway is that first time claims have now exceeded 400k for 10 weeks in a row and the four-week moving average is stuck at 425k. Moreover, the Philly Fed index at -7.7 along with the similar -7.8 print on the NY Empire,…
Read MoreRecession Reduces Romance
US births fell for a 3rd straight year. Births peaked at 4.3 million in ’07 but by ’10 births were just 4 million. In ’08 and ’09 the only increase in births was for women over 40. The decline is tied to the economy. Women who are unemployed or who have other financial strains are…
Read MoreTexas; #1 in Job Growth
37% of all net new jobs created since the recovery began were created in TX. TX has added 265K net jobs. NY was 2nd with 98K, PA 93K. TX is also one of 4 states that has more jobs now than when the recession began; the others are ND, AK and DC. Over the last…
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