Archive for February 2017

In 2015, US exports totaled $2.23 trillion. Canada, our largest export market, purchased 19%, or $423 billion of exports. Mexico was next at 16%. Collectively, both NAFTA partners purchased 35% of American exports. China was a distant third, purchasing 8% of exports, Japan and the UK tied for fourth at 4%. Germany, South Korea, and…

After spending a record $19.7 billion last year, or $146.84/celebrant, spending this Valentine’s Day is expected to be $18.2 billion; $136.57/celebrant. It’s partly because the percentage of Americans celebrating Valentine’s Day has declined from 63% to 54% since 2007. As for Valentine’s Day cards, forget ‘em. Inflation-adjusted revenue for greeting card publishers has fallen by…

While Trump’s policies will impact many nations, Mexico will be the most negatively affected. A stronger dollar will make repayment of its dollar-denominated bonds tougher and simultaneously raise inflation. To counter this, the Bank of Mexico has raised rates by a staggering 3.25 percentage points, but that reduces investment. Moreover, a trade war will reduce…

The Friday File: While global wealth totals $255 trillion, the median wealth of all 4.8 billion global adults is just $2,222; the average is $52,819. In North America, it takes $4.47 million in wealth to be in the top 1%, in Europe it takes $1.41 million, in Asia-Pacific $660,000 and in China $230,000. The 33…

In 2016, the US trade deficit hit $502 billion, its highest level in four years. In percentage terms, it fell to 2.7% of GDP, down slightly from 2.8% the last few years. By definition, the size of the trade deficit is equal to the gap between domestic savings and domestic investment. Thus, only by fundamentally…

Y-o-Y CPI inflation is 2.1%, but as recently as 9/15 was 0%. Similarly, producer price inflation has risen from -8.4% in 9/15 to 2.6%, and import inflation has climbed slightly more. The Fed’s preferred inflation measure, core PCE, has increased from 1.3% in 7/15 to 1.7%. While the rise in inflation is much desired, the…

Foreign-trained doctors make up 22% of all doctors in family medicine, 25.5% in pediatrics, 30.2% in psychiatry and 38.6% in internal Medicine. In critical-care, the number is 41%, in cardiology it is 43.6%, in nephrology (kidneys) it’s 47.2% and in geriatric medicine, a whopping 50.7%. Moreover, one-fifth of nurses, home health and psychiatric aides and…

The 227,000 new jobs created in January were excellent as was the rise in the unemployment rate to 4.8% from 4.7% due to the rise in the labor force participation rate from 62.7% to 62.9%. But, December wage growth was revised down from 0.4% to 0.2% and January’s was just 0.1%. The general trend remains…