Archive for August 2017

The Friday File: Between 1973 and 2011, sperm concentration in males in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand (where more and better data are available) declined by between 52% and 59%, depending on the method of measurement; don’t ask. Moreover, the decline doesn’t seem to be slowing. Possible explanations for this disturbing trend include…

Despite a roaring labor market, the credit cycle is turning. After peaking at 4.85% in 09Q2, consumer loan delinquency rates steadily declined to 2% and remained there from 15Q1 through 16Q1. Since then, they have steadily risen and are now at 2.2%. The story’s much the same for credit card delinquencies and auto loans. While…

After two straight record-breaking years of 17.5 million units in 2015 and 17.6 million units in 2016, car sales are retrenching. Prior to July, car sales had declined in four of the last five months, but improved to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 16.7 million in July, up from 16.5 million in June. While…

In 2015, cash was used in 32% of all consumer transactions, followed closely by debit cards at 27%, credit cards at 21%, electronic payments at 11%, checks at 6% and other at 3%. Between 2012 and 2015, cash usage plummeted by eight percentage points while all other forms rose incrementally except for checks and other,…