WFH, Strong Purchase Applications, Rates Flat
WFH – the percentage of people working from home in the US increased from 15% to 50% in the last month. If your company offered WFH you had a 33% lower chance of being laid off during covid-19. Of course in the WFH environment team cohesion and creativity can suffer. As more companies shift to […]
Virtual Interaction, Stimulus Package, Jobless Claims
Many people are turning to the plethora of free software like Zoom for virtual meetings, conferences, and basic human interaction. Early this week my family played Pictionary using the Zoom ‘whiteboard’ function and a pictionary random word generator. If you prefer more complicated or resource driven games try the link above! Rates – continue to […]
Corona vs SARS, Strong Jobs Report, Home Appreciation
Coronavirus death toll is approaching the near 800 killed by SARS in 2002 & 2003. The estimated global economic impacted of SARS was $40B. 17 years Later Chinese economic output has gone up from $1.7T to $14T (8x) and its share of global trade is at 12.8% compared to 5.3% in 2003. “China today accounts […]
Historic Bubbles, Rates Improve, Home Appreciation
Bubbles – NPR’s Planet Money is doing a series on bubbles & this one took place in Kuwait during the late 1970’s. A massive influx of oil money had recently changed the city from minimal infrastructure (no running water/minimal electricity) to a bustling metropolis. With a highly regulated market and stable political climate became a […]
Jets on Sale, Rates Improve, New Construction Strength
Sales of business jets were up 15 percent year over year at the end of Q3. The new tax laws made purchasing an airplane more affordable. If you use it for business purposes 50% of the time you can depreciate the plane 100% in year 1. Effectively you could purchase a $5M plane for $2.5M […]
Polymaths, Jobs, Home Sales, New Construction
Polymath – was first used in the early 17th century to mean a person with ‘many learnings’ – most researches argue that to be a true polymath you need some kind of formal acclaim in at least two apparently unrelated domains. Some people fear that the pursuit of too many interests can lead to the […]
Income Inequality, Jobs, Appreciation
Income Inequality – during the first 70 years of the 20th century the ‘top 1%’ share of income dropped below 10% of the total pie. Over the previous 50 years it has rocketed back up to 20%. Alarmingly, a similar trend is absent in Western Europe. Rather than focus on tax-code redistribution of wealth, Europe […]
Cranberry Diversification, Freight Decline, Loans Performing
Diversification: on Nov. 9th 1959 trace amounts of pesticide were found in cranberries 3 weeks before the big day and it caused nationwide panic. It prompted the release of this catchy tune and the White House served applesauce with their turkey (??). Later congress compensated growers $8.5M for loss of sales but it gutted the […]
Icelandic Bubble, Appreciation Forecast, Mild Inflation
Iceland – has experienced its share of bubbles. A herring bubble in the 1960’s, in the early 2000’s they bet on becoming a financial hub before that crash and shortly after their country blew up. The 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull caused the largest airspace disruption since WWII. The volcano did, however, ignite a tourism industry […]
Millennial Myth-Busting, Strong Housing Reports, Rates Hopeful
Millennial Myth Busting – as an older Millennial I tire of click-baity articles that claim Millennials killed ‘x’ industry/company and can’t afford a home because they spend too much on avocado toast. Gray Kimbrough has written a few interesting economic papers that dispel many of these myths pointing toward contributing factors such as the recent […]