Archive for October 2016

GDP growth remains weak a decade after the start of the Great Recession. It’s not because the recession was caused by a financial meltdown, but because labor force growth is weak due to slowing population growth, educational attainment is plateauing, and corporate spending is feeble. Combined, these negative influences will keep GDP growth at less…

The Friday File: 103 years after awarding the Nobel prize in literature to Bengali songwriter Rabindranath Tagore, the 2016 prizewinner is Bob Dylan. He’s put out 79 albums and sold over 125 million copies. He’s the first American to win the literature prize since Toni Morrison in 1993. See him because at 75 he’s actively…

Last week’s first time claims for unemployment totaled just 246,000, the best reading this year and the best reading since 11/24/73! The four-week moving average, which reduces week-to-week volatility, was just 249,250, the lowest level since 11/3/73, almost 43 years ago! This is definitive evidence of serious labor market strength. Unemployment claims may rise slightly…

Among the 33 major democratic industrialized nations, the average tax burden, including all federal, state and local taxes, is 34.4% of GDP. The highest tax-burdened nation is Denmark, where taxes are an amazing 50.9%. Next comes France at 45.2% and Belgium at 44.7%. The least taxed nation is Mexico at 19.7%, followed by Chile at…

While Friday’s job report showed 156,000 net new jobs created in September, below expectations of 168,000, private sector job growth was 167,000, barely under the 170,000 expected. Separately, the labor force participation rate increased to 62.9% from 62.8%, driving up the unemployment rate to 5% from 4.9%, hourly earnings rose and the average work week…

Oliver Hart of Harvard by way of Britain, and Bengt Holmstrom of MIT, but originally from Finland, jointly won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for their work on contract theory and its impact on corporate governance and mergers, bankruptcy law, payment schemes for employees, privatization, public policy and more. Of the nine Nobel…

The Friday File: In August, Manchester United paid an £89 ($112) million transfer fee to Italian club Juventus for 23-year-old midfielder Paul Pogba. This broke the prior transfer fee record of £86 million Real Madrid paid for Gareth Bale in 2013 and is the first time since 2000 that a club other than Real broke…

Financial markets quickly rendered their decision on the first Clinton-Trump debate. The Mexican peso, a very oversimplified yet popular election risk proxy and barometer of election fortunes, soared as markets now assume no wall will built, NAFTA will not be renegotiated and millions of illegals are unlikely to be sent packing. In addition, gold, a…