Posts Tagged ‘funniest economist’
Poor Public Payrolls
Non-farm private employment peaked at 115.5 million in 6/07 and is now 115.0 million, down half-a-percent and should hit a new high this May. By contrast, total public employment, which includes state, local and federal government employment, plateaued at 22.8 million and is now only 22.5 million, a difference of 1.56%, and probably won’t reach…
Read MoreGifts Galore
The Friday File: The 53% of men who celebrate Valentine’s Day spend an average of $173, while the 54% of women who celebrate spend $97. By age, 25-34 year olds spend the most averaging $218, followed by 18-24 year olds at $162. Southerners spend the most, averaging $143, while the 21% of Midwesterners who buy…
Read MoreWoefully Wicked Weather
While December’s job growth number of 75,000 and January’s of 113,000 were disappointing and probably underestimate the health of the economy, we won’t get confirmation of that in February! That’s because the monthly employment survey is administered during the week of the month on which 12th falls, which is this week! Thus, we’ll have to…
Read MoreObamacare Ouch
By 2024, 2.5 million fewer Americans will work due to Obamacare. Because Obamacare healthcare subsidies decline as incomes rise, some workers will deliberately not work to increase their government benefits. The structure of the subsidy is a tax on work. And you get less of whatever you tax. Regrettably, the labor force participation rate is…
Read MoreIntergenerational Influence
Based on a Norwegian study that controls for all socio-economic variables, when parents are awarded Disability Insurance, the likelihood that one of their adult children will receive DI rises by six percentage points over the next five years and by 12 percentage points over the next decade. This finding suggests that children learn from their…
Read MoreDaunting Debt Destiny
The CBO projects that the FY2014 budget deficit will be $514 billion, 3% of GDP, and will be just $478 billion or 2.6% of GDP in FY2015. The deficit then begins to rise as a percentage of GDP. A key reason: interest on the debt. While a manageable $233 billion or 1.3% of GDP today,…
Read MoreGoing for Broke
With $6.2 billion in gambling revenues, Las Vegas is the top casino market in the US, Atlantic City with $3.1 billion is second. Chicagoland is third at $2.2 billion, Detroit is fourth with $1.4 billion and Connecticut is number five with $1.2 billion. However, the world’s number one gambling destination is Macau with 2013 revenue…
Read MoreTouchdown Totals
Touchdown Totals The NFL has revenues of $10 billion/year, more than any other sports league and its revenues are almost as big as the GDP of The Bahamas. Over the next decade, the NFL plans to increase its revenues to $27 billion/year which would put it on par with the nation of Nicaragua and would…
Read MoreNattering Nabobs
While naysayers dismissed today’s 3.2% Q4 annualized GDP growth number because 0.42% of it was from a rise in inventories, excluding them Q4 GDP was 2.8% while Q3 GDP was just 2.5%! Moreover, a drastic decline in federal government defense spending along with the government closure clipped 0.98% from Q4 GDP growth while residential construction,…
Read MoreDriving Behavior
Six years after the start of the Great Recession, the total number of vehicle miles traveled (VMTs) is still 2.27% below the pre-recession high. Moreover, per capita VMTs are down a whopping 7.82% since peaking in June 2005. In the last recession, VMTs did not decline while in the 1990 recession they recovered in just…
Read More