A few thoughts while you are digesting Thanksgiving dinner There was a bunch of data released Wednesday, while yours truly was on the road along with everybody else. So here are a couple of thoughts for you as you sit there with your loosened belt figuring out what leftovers you’re going to be eating for […]
Why Did Oil Prices Plunge This Black Friday? Nothing to do with the American super big shopping day after Thanksgiving, but several items, some of which may reverse themselves. As it is, it was a pretty big drop, nearly 5 percent for the day for both West Texas and Brent crude, with the latter now […]
by New Deal democrat The consumer is still alright, November 2019 edition I have a new post up at Seeking Alpha. A few months ago I took a look at the order in which I would expect the dominoes to fall if there were to be a consumer-led recession. One more domino has fallen, but several […]
I looked at this at first, wondered what it depicted, thought it might be a piece of art, and puzzled over it a bit. It is a topographical depiction (Lidar) of the Mississippi River. If you look closely, you can see roads and various plots of land in addition to the movement of the river […]
Complicating The ARAMCO IPO The Saudi ARAMCO IPO is happening on the Saudi exchange just for Saudi citizens, where apparently there is a not-so-subtle campaign on well off and connected citizens (who wish to remain that way) to buy into the IPO. But there continues to be delays in opening it up to the rest […]
I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving with family, friends, or strangers. My young and pretty 20 – something year-old wife and I were traveling years ago. We were standing in a long line into the only restaurant at O’hare airport. It was a couple of days before a holiday and the airport was packed. […]
Housing rebound continues; price appreciation stabilizes Just a quick note, as I am traveling today.New home sales declined slightly in October from September, but remain at the high end of this expansion. The renewed uptrend in housing sales, due to lower mortgage rates, is clearly intact: Meanwhile house prices, as measured by the Case Shiller […]
Putin Beating Up People At Russia’s Top University That would be Moscow State University, the “Harvard” of Russia. Not in the MSM at all, but I have my sources. Apparently sometime last week, the FSB and the successor to the domestic arm of the old KGB, raided Moscow State (whose main building is one of […]
Rebound in existing home sales continues, but beware the housing “choke collar” Although they account for about 90% of the entire housing market, existing home sales are the least consequential to the economy. That’s because building new homes entails a bunch of economic activity, from architects, builders, building trades contractors, landscapers in the building process, […]
Have the Transfer Pricing Experts at KPMG Heard of the Repo Ruckus? If one thinks Trump’s economic advisors are the dumbest people on the planet, I have a new candidate for that award – a few supposed experts on intercompany loans that work for KPMG: In 2017, the ARRC selected the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) […]