Posts Tagged ‘housing sales’
Budget Busting Bird
While the cost of Thanksgiving dinner has increased by 12.81% since 2010, excluding the turkey the cost has risen by just 5.7% because the cost of the bird alone has risen by 23% and it represents almost half of the cost of Thanksgiving dinner. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, hopefully graced by the presence of the…
Read MoreHappy Households
In a sign that household deleveraging may be over, outstanding household debt grew by $127 billion in Q3 and now stands at $11.28 trillion. While down 11% from the peak of $12.7 trillion set in 2008, after essentially 20 straight quarters of deleveraging, this is great news. Mortgage debt rose by $56 billion, credit card…
Read MoreFaulty Filibuster
Senate Democrats’ decision to remove the filibuster for executive-branch nominees works. They only stay as long as the administration does. But doing away with the filibuster for all judgeships (with the exception of Supreme Court nominees) was a mistake. Their appointments last a lifetime and should thus better mirror the makeup of the nation. Also,…
Read MoreDumbo Decision
The Friday File: In a moment of economic madness, the US government recently destroyed six tons of ivory, equivalent to the ivory from 2,000 elephants, and worth $16.3 million, or $8,200/elephant. With only 200,000 elephants left and a record 25,000 killed last year, making all existing ivory more valuable by depleting the supply only encourages…
Read MoreIt’s Electric
A problem with solar and wind energy is that it’s intermittent. Since renewables generally have grid priority over other sources, when renewables surge other sources must rapidly decline to compensate. But since nuclear and coal plants are designed to run continuously, the only sources that can be adjusted are natural gas plants. The less gas-fired…
Read MoreFed Funding
Reading the just released minutes from the most recent Fed meeting, it sounds like when the Fed starts reducing its monthly purchases of $85 billion in treasuries and MBS, the Fed will concurrently announce that it will keep short term interest rates abnormally low for a long time to reassure markets it will continue its…
Read MoreHalting Housing
In Q3, investment in home improvements was $178 billion, while construction spending on new single family (SF) houses and townhouses was $172 billion, each about one percent of GDP. Similarly, in Q1 spending on home improvements was $161 billion, slightly above the $157 billion spent building new SF structures. Normally new SF construction spending is…
Read MoreWomen’s Work
After losing 2.7 million jobs in the Great Recession, 68 million women are now working, 100,000 below the all-time high set in 4/08. By contrast, men lost 5.9 million jobs in the Recession, and currently 76.4 million men are employed, down from a high of 78.5 million in 11/07. Male employment is still down by…
Read MoreA Wealth of Art
The Friday File: In a sign of how well the super-rich are doing, a recent contemporary/postwar art auction netted $692 million, breaking the record of $495 million set in May. A triptych by Francis Bacon went for $142.2 million, a new record for artwork sold at auction, shattering the former record of $120 million for…
Read MorePuerto Rican Problem
Since special federal manufacturing tax breaks were eliminated in 2006, Puerto Rico’s economy has shrunk by 16% and its population by almost 4%. Worse, with $70 billion in bonds outstanding (more than all but NY and CA) there is fear PR may default. With a debt/personal income ratio of an amazing 89%, compared to 10%…
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