Archive for August 2012
It’s Ruff Outside
The Friday file: After rising for decades, and peaking in ’06, the number of households with a pet fell between ’06 and ’11. The decline was due to the lousy economy and more Americans living alone. In ’91 there were 57 million pet cats and 52.5 million pet dogs. By ’06 there were 80 million…
Read MoreGoods Going Global
While manufacturing and exports have helped lead the nation out of the financial crisis, the importance of manufactured exports on state economies varies tremendously. TX leads the way with almost $9,000 per capita in manufactured exports, with LA next at $7,700, followed by WA at $7,193 and VT at $6,615. NM is lowest at $933,…
Read MoreTAG Taxes Taxpayers
FDIC insurance covers up to $250,000 per bank account. During the ‘08 financial crisis, Congress passed the Transaction Account Guarantee (TAG), providing unlimited insurance for non-interest bearing accounts. While TAG might have made sense then, it doesn’t now. TAG not only rewards badly run banks, it creates future instability. As interest rates rise, cash will…
Read MoreCaribbean Champs
The US (population 300 million) won 104 Olympic medals besting China (population 1.3 billion) with 88 medals, but which country was #1 after adjusting for population? On a per capita basis, Grenada was first, winning a medal for every 111,000 people, with Jamaica next, winning a medal/225,000 people. The US ranked 49th winning one medal/3,000,000…
Read MoreAds on the Prowl
A recent report shows that advertisers spent $31.7 billion on Internet ads in ’11, slightly more than the $30 billion spent on cable TV ads. Broadcast TV remained on top, receiving $38.5 billion from advertisers, but for how much longer? Newspapers were #1 as recently as 2005 with $48 billion in ads, but now take…
Read MoreCourting Disaster
The Friday File: Proving love is recession resistant, the average ’12 wedding will cost $26,989 up from $26,501 in ’11 and down slightly from the peak of $28,082 in ’08. Engagement rings were the single most expensive item at $11,599. Next was photography at $2,186 followed by wedding rings at $1,594. The cake is the…
Read MoreGold Medal Tax Insanity
A bill supported by Obama and introduced by Senator Rubio exempting Olympians from paying taxes on their prize winnings, is emblematic of all that ails Washington! These folks don’t deserve special treatment! Our taxes must rise to make up the lost revenue or else we must borrow more from the Chinese. Moreover, it encourages folks…
Read MoreA Job-Loss Recovery
A glance at the employment-to-population ratio (EPR) is all it takes to see how poorly our economy and job market are performing. The EPR peaked at 64.7% in 4/00, and now sits at just 58.4% – a fall of 6.3 percentage points, which translates to a loss of 20 million working people! Worse, it’s declined…
Read MorePolicy Progressivity
A new CBO report shows that over the past thirty years, 72.5% of all income growth for the middle quintile of the population (households earning $50,000), came from increased government payments (social security, food stamps…) and reduced federal taxes. In ’79, the middle quintile paid $10,400 in taxes and received $3,100 in payments. Now they…
Read MoreHostage to HELOC
Home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) initially require borrowers to only pay interest, but that period will soon end for most borrowers. A government study shows that 58% of all HELOC balances will be required to start making principal and interest (P&I) payments between now and ’17. $15 billion in HELOCs will require P&I payments…
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