By Michael Shedlock – Retail sales rose 0.8% in November topping consensus estimate of a 0.3% rise. There's some talk of economic "overheating". The Advance Retail Trade Report from the Census Department shows retail and...
By Michael Shedlock – Economist Joseph Stiglitz sees no socially useful purpose to Bitcoin and concludes it should be banned. The former chief economist of the World Bank, Joseph Stiglitz Wants Bitcoin Banned.
By Michael Shedlock – Through the third quarter, 6,752 locations were scheduled to shutter in the US according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. That's more than double the 2016 total and is close to surpassing...
By Michael Shedlock – GOP leaders finally unveiled key details in their tax overhaul plan. There are some winners and losers as always the case. Two losers are the homebuilders and Tesla. Part of the mortgage...
By Michael Shedlock – The Illinois legislature is in recess right now. Other than disbanding the body, that's the best place for them. When they return, they are going after your pocketbook in the form a gas tax hike.
By Mish Shedlock – The California Department of Motor Vehicles is changing its rules to allow companies to test autonomous vehicles without a driver behind the wheel — and to let the public use autonomous vehicles. The DMV released a revised version...
Millennials are now the largest age group but retailers and advertisers, in general, haven’t quite figured out how to reach them. Millennials are not as interested in drills, machine shop workbenches, gardening, and any number...
By Michael Shedlock – Auto sales are running substantially above estimates according to Econoday. Apparently, economists did not see the restocking needed for many hundreds of thousands of autos ruined by hurricanes Harvey and Irma.
By Michael Shedlock – Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan CEO, made quite a headline splash last week when he proclaimed “Bitcoin ‘is a Fraud“. Is Bitcoin a fraud? Or are dollars, euros, yen, and yuan a collective set of frauds?
By Michael Shedlock – The Student Loan Debt and Housing Report 2017 by the National Association of Realtors and the nonprofit group American Student Assistance show the obvious: Student debt delays household formation, home...
By Michael Shedlock – The news on Hurricane Irma is grim and worsening. The record-breaking Hurricane is described as “apocalyptic”. Irma is one of three hurricanes in the Atlantic basin, the first time since 2010 that three active hurricanes...
By Michael Shedlock – A Chinese T-shirt company is setting up shop in Arkansas, lured by US sewbots and lower production costs. It will cost about 33 cents to produce a shirt. Please consider China Snaps Up America’s Cheap Robot Labor.
By Michael Shedlock – Ben Bernanke will join Sir Tim Berners-Lee as keynote speakers at the “Swell” cryptocurrency conference October 16-18 in Toronto. I don’t have an opinion on where Bitcoin is headed in any particular timeframe.
Subprime auto delinquencies have staked up so much that we are back at 2007 milestone levels. There’s a section of the auto-loan market — known in industry parlance as deep subprime — where delinquency rates have ticked up to...
By Michael Shedlock – Ian Narev, the CEO of Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), the nation’s largest bank is set to step down amid money laundering charges. Money laundering is big business in Australia because regulations do not...
By Michael Shedlock – The headline of the day is Billionaire bond guru Jeffery Gundlach Predicts he will make 400% on his bet against the stock market. Gundlach bought S&P PUTs betting the stock market will drop. Does that make him bearish?
By Michael Shedlock – Australia’s Black Economy Taskforce has come up with a list of 35 “consumer-focused” proposals to crack down on cash. The taskforce blames consumers for holding cash and for not getting receipts. Michael Andrew, the head...
By Michael Shedlock – Sweden’s biggest banks are on a mission to get rid of branch banks and all the branch bank employees too. That’s where “Aida” comes in. She’s available 24/7 and supposedly can handle all but your most...
By Michael Shedlock – An article from Investopedia recently caught my attention: “IMF Urges Banks to Invest In Cryptocurrencies” The opening sentence of the article states: “A June 2017 staff discussion note from the International Monetary Fund (IMF)...
By Michael Shedlock – Amazon fulfillment centers, typically single-story warehouses located in suburbs, do not meet its goal of low-cost deliveries to city dwellers. Amazon’s patented solution is multi-story, drone-delivery behive center warehouses smack...
