Archive for April 2013
Down Data
Retail sales fell a surprisingly large 0.4% in March, the biggest decline since 6/12 and the preliminary University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment declined to 72.3 in April from 78.6 in March. Worse, February retail sales were cut by 0.1% and January sales by 0.3%. This shows that the payroll tax increase is starting…
Read MoreTax Trivia
In 1934, individual income taxes were 14% of tax receipts, today they’re 47%. Similarly, social insurance and retirement receipts were just 1% but are 35% today. By contrast, corporate income taxes were just 12% in 1934, reached a high of 40% in 1943 and are now 10%, while excise taxes have fallen from 46% to…
Read MoreMasterful Musicians
The Friday File: On 12/5/12, jazz great Dave Brubeck died at age 91 and on 2/27/13 Harvey Lavan Cliburn, Jr. known best as Van Cliburn passed at age 78. Brubeck’s 1959 album “Time Out” was the first jazz album to sell over a million copies, while Cliburn’s recording of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto #1 in 1958,…
Read MoreNo Shoot
Rather than requiring gun-training, fingerprinting, outlawing assault weapons or “large” ammunition magazines or limiting the number of guns you can buy/day, instead require gun buyers to post a $10,000 bond for each gun purchased, and if the gun is involved in a crime, the bond is forfeited. This gives gun buyers strong incentives not to…
Read MoreDriving Sales
Last week automakers reported sales of 15.3 million, up from a low of 9.0 million in February 2009. The rise is due in part to ultra-low interest rates, but also to both a rapidly aging fleet and longer loan terms. The average age of a car is now 11.2 years, up from 8.4 in 1995,…
Read MoreSouring Cyprus
The recent $13 billion bailout (60% of GDP) made by the IMF, ECB, and European Commission to Cyprus does not solve problems, it just delays them. With a post bailout debt-to-GDP burden of 140%, an economy that will shrink 20% over the next two years, the gutting of its huge financial sector, and a promise…
Read MoreLess Work
US employment peaked in 1/08 at 138.1 million. Employment then fell to a low of 129.3 million in 2/10, a loss of 8.8 million jobs. Today 46 months after the end of the recession, employment is 135.2 million, 2.9 million below the high. Assuming an optimistic 200,000 new jobs per month, a new employment high…
Read MoreBad Booze
The Friday File: Due to skyrocketing demand and fixed supply of bourbon, rather than raising the price, the distiller of Maker’s Mark is reducing its alcoholic content by 7%! While most customers won’t notice, those that do will buy better bourbon like Knob Creek and Booker’s from the same distillery. Boosting the price of Maker’s…
Read MoreMarch For Jobs
March employment numbers come out tomorrow and they will disappoint. ADP reported weak private sector job growth numbers yesterday, first time unemployment claims that came out this morning and were on the high end and sequestration will probably knock off 5,000 to 15,000 jobs. Moreover, both the manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors while still growing are…
Read MoreBuilding on Housing
As if more proof were needed that home building is rapidly improving, and that production builders are the biggest winners, Taylor Morrison plans an IPO to take advantage of the run-up in home builder stock prices. The planned IPO will value the firm at $2.6 billion. Not bad given that it was purchased in 2011…
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