July 2018 Median Household Income

Median household income in the United States rose to $62,450 in July 2018, with Sentier Research reporting a 0.4% increase over its June 20...

Midsummer Scenes from the U.S. New Home Market

We're going to tell the story of the United States' new home market primarily through pictures today, where our first chart visualiz...

Early Pumpkin Spice Lattes Sign of Trouble at Starbucks?

For many Americans, the month of September is something to look forward to every year with the return of cooler temperatures and, for millio...

S&P 500 Sets Two New Market Highs!

On Monday, 27 August 2018, the S&P 500 (Index: SPX ) close at a new record high value of 2,896.74 . At the same time, it also broke its...

The S&P 500 Reaches New Highs in the Doldrums of Summer

It took 147 trading days to do it, but on Friday, 24 August 2018, the closing value of the S&P 500 (Index: SPX ) reached 2,874.69 , fina...

The Math and Physics of Breaking Spaghetti

It's a little known fact, but spaghetti has been mystifying physicists for decades. The reason why has to do with a puzzle about why the...

U.S. Federal Alcohol Taxes in the 21st Century

Every now and again in the course of the projects we develop, we come across data that is, in and of itself, pretty interesting. Today, it ...

Teen Job Prospects Improving, Not So Much in California

First the good news, as reported in the Boston Globe : Now hiring: teenagers (and anyone else willing to work) . After years of falling empl...

Lifetime Income Trajectories by Education Level for Full-Time, Year-Round Workers

We've drilled down a bit deeper into the U.S. Census Bureau's data documenting the lifetime income trajectories that Americans have...

S&P 500 Rises As Turkey Concerns Offset By Improved Trade Deal Prospects, Earnings

The doldrums of summer are here, which perhaps explains why investor reaction to geopolitical news would seem to be the only thing really mo...

Philadelphians Sure Drink a Lot More Alcohol Since the City's Soda Tax Was Imposed

There are certain things that are understood without having to be said, because they're very obvious. Things like "never get invo...

Spring 2018 Snapshot of Expected Future S&P 500 Earnings

Every three months, we take a snapshot of the expectations for future earnings in the S&P 500 at approximately the midpoint of the curre...

Education and Lifetime Income Trajectories

How will your annual income change over your life? That's a difficult, if not impossible, question to answer for an individual, consider...