This Time it is Different

February 5, 2019February 5, 2019

Is Household Debt in the U.S. really a bigger problem than before the financial crisis?

There are various ways to look at Household Debt (total debt outstanding including mortgages, loans, credit cards and other debt) in the United States, we look at two today.

The first is debt servicing costs to disposable income which effectively is how much it costs to service household debt as a fraction of disposable (after tax) income. The second is household debt outstanding to disposable income which effectively is how much debt there is with respect to the same disposable (after tax) income measure.

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January 31, 2019February 3, 2019

Highlights from January 2019

After the worst December for stocks in decades, global equity markets bounced back in January. In December, the S&P 500 fell 9.18% (its worst December since 1931) and entered bear market territory. Since Christmas, the S&P 500 has risen over 15% with a 7.9% jump in January alone, its best January performance since 1987.

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January 31, 2019February 3, 2019

Eurozone Q4 2018 GDP up by 0.2% and European Union Q4 2018 GDP up by 0.3%; 2018 annual GDP growth at 1.8% for the Eurozone and 1.9% for EU; Italy in Recession

Seasonally adjusted GDP rose by 0.2% in the Euro area or Eurozone (EA) and by 0.3% in the European Union (EU) during Q4 2018, compared with Q3 2018.

EU and Eurozone GDP up to Q4 2018 — Source: Eurostat

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January 31, 2019February 1, 2019

Here are the minimum wage levels across the European Union

22 out of the 28 Member States of the European Union (EU) currently have national minimum wages. The 6 countries in the EU that do not currently have any minimum wage level set are Denmark, Italy, Cyprus, Austria, Finland and Sweden.

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January 30, 2019

The growth of E-Commerce in the United States in three charts

Chart 1: E-Commerce Retail Sales as a Percent of Total Sales

E-Commerce retail sales are now 9.8% of total retail sales (at the end of Q3 2018). Amazon is estimated to be 50% of all E-Commerce sales in the U.S. which would mean Amazon accounts for around 5% (or $1 in every $20 spent) of all retail sales in the U.S.

US ecommerce as a percentage of total retail until Q3 2018

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January 27, 2019January 28, 2019

Delinquency and Charge-off rates across banks in the United States remain low (January 2019 edition)

We answered the question whether bad loans were really increasing for banks in the United States at the end of December. We look at Delinquency and Charge-off rates across banks for United States across different products in this post.

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January 24, 2019

Here are UK household spending insights

Here are insights into the spending habits of UK households by region and type of spending based on living costs and food survey of the Office for National Statistics.

Average weekly household expenditure in the UK was £572.60 in the financial year ending 2018; the highest weekly spend since the financial year ending 2005, after adjusting for inflation.

UK household weekly spending until 2018 Continue reading “Here are UK household spending insights”

January 22, 2019

Individuals now consistently contribute over 80% of all U.S. federal taxes

One big impact of the U.S. tax cut for corporations has been that corporate taxes now just contribute 8.3% of all U.S. federal taxes. As import tariffs rise, custom duties have been rising at a staggering rate, and tariffs on imported goods together with taxes levied at production now contribute 8.1% of all U.S. federal taxes. Taxes paid by individuals contribute the vast majority or 82.3% of all U.S. federal taxes.

US tax breakdown until Q3 2018

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January 20, 2019January 21, 2019

The U.S. total wage bill to corporate profitability ratio throws up several questions

In September last year we wrote why wages weren’t rising despite record employment and labour shortages and earlier this month we wrote that U.S. Corporate profits have been growing well and have hit a record high. We explore another angle, total wages (wages including bonuses and overtime – all before taxes) to the corporate profits (before taxes) ratio.

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January 17, 2019January 20, 2019

Europe’s aging population is set to cause huge economic challenges

We wrote about population percentage for each country by age last year. Here’s a map of population percentage for age 65 and above:

Japan has the highest percentage of over 65s at 26.56%. The other countries that make the top 25 countries for over 65s population are Italy, Germany, Portugal, Finland, Bulgaria, Greece, Sweden, Denmark, France, Croatia, Spain, Estonia, Austria, Malta, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Belgium, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Switzerland and Hungary all of which are in Europe.

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