Archive for May 2015

In 2013, 62.7% of the US population lived in incorporated cities (ICs), up from 62.3% in 2010 and 61.9% in 2000. ICs occupy 3.5% of US land area. The West is most urban, with 76.4% of its population living in ICs where the water is. The four largest ICs by area are in Alaska, with…

Of every 100,000 persons born in 1900, 13 made it to age 100. That same statistic is projected to be 199 for those born in 1950, and 1,968 for those born in 2010! Similarly in 1900, 25% of all persons died before age 20. By 1950, that percentage declined to 5.3% and by 2010 it…

Prime Minister Cameron’s strong victory in U.K. elections last week elated markets as the Tories are considered better able to shrink the stubbornly large UK budget deficit than Labour. But market tranquility will be brief. The rise of the Scottish independence movement and Cameron’s promise to hold a referendum on continued UK membership in the…

Friday’s job report showed continued but grindingly slow labor market improvement. Net job growth totaled 223,000 which was OK and the unemployment rate fell to 5.4% from 5.5%. Those working part-time because they can’t find full time work fell by 125,000, average wage growth didn’t improve and the labor-force participation rate improved marginally. Markets were…

The Friday File: In March, a Gauguin sold for $300 million, the highest price ever paid for a work of art. Soon after, a Gerhard Richter painting sold for $45 million, the most ever for a living European artist. In 2014, art sales totaled a record $77 billion, surpassing the previous peak of $73 billion…

The US had a staggering $51.4 billion trade deficit in March, the largest since 2008, and up from $35.9 billion in February. Thus Q1 GDP will be revised down from 0.2% to -0.2%. The reasons: the West Coast port dispute and the surging dollar. The three-month moving average gap, which reduces distortions from the strike,…

While the homeownership rate slipped to a 26-year low of 63.8% in Q1/15, it’s now falling for the right reasons. Rather than dropping as homeowners become renters, it’s falling because hordes of new, primarily renter households are being formed. Between Q1/14 and Q1/15 1.5 million households were formed and between Q4/14 and Q4/13 1.7 million…

In 2013, China sent 147,000 immigrants (legal and illegal) to the US, more than any other nation. India was next at 129,000, and in third place was former perennial top-dog Mexico with 126,000. During the first half of the last decade, Mexican immigration regularly topped 300,000 but has fallen precipitously due an improving local economy…

The world’s largest Cinco de Mayo celebration is in Los Angeles and 5/05 is not Mexico’s independence day, that’s 9/16. On Cinco de Mayo, Americans will consume 81 million avocados and eat tortillas from one of 367 American tortilla manufacturing facilities. There are 34 million US residents that trace their heritage to Mexico, and while…