Week in Review Part 2
Tariffs, old homebuyers, & more
This is a brief follow up to Anirban’s Week in Review post from Wednesday. No new data releases since then, just a few policy updates and interesting links.
Trump maybe backs off tariff threat
On Tuesday, President elect Trump threatened 25% tariffs on all Mexican and Canadian imports. On Wednesday, we wrote that these tariffs probably wouldn’t be enacted, and on Wednesday night, Trump seemed to back off this specific threat (at least on Mexico).
Again, it’s very unlikely that these tariffs on Canada and Mexico are implemented.
More tariff fun from Biden’s Commerce Department
U.S. golf cart manufacturers have been asking for 100% tariffs on Chinese golf carts. It looks like they’ll get their wish, with 22% to 515% taxes imposed on small, battery powered Chinese vehicles when they arrive at U.S. ports. This is a follow up to the May 2024 decision to bump tariffs on Chinese EVs from 25% to 100%.
Amazon’s Black Friday play
In an effort to keep people on their couches and out of brick and mortar retail stores, Amazon is streaming the Chiefs vs. Raiders football game today. This is the second year that Amazon has broadcast a Black Friday game, and they’re paying the NFL between $50-70 million every year through 2033 for the right to do so (on top of the $1 billion+ they pay for the rights to Thursday Night Football).
Interesting side note: this game is at 3PM EST because the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 prohibits pro football games from being televised after 6 PM on Fridays or at any time on Saturdays from the second Friday of September to the second Saturday of December.
1899 Thanksgiving Prices
Check out this menu from the Plaza Hotel’s Thanksgiving dinner in 1899. Those prices? They’re in cents, not dollars.
That might seem shockingly inexpensive, but average hourly earnings for production workers were just $0.13 in 1899. Current workers make 217 times more per hour. More context on this menu and the prices in this excellent post from Jeremy Horpedahl.
No houses for young men
The median homebuyer age has risen to 56(!!), the highest level since at least 1981 and almost certainly since, well, forever. Put another way, it’s a good time to be buying a home in cash and a very bad time to be financing one.
A new report card on state permitting laws
This new State Permitting Scorecard grades states on how easy it is to build there. Texas earned the only A so far, and that’s part of the reason Texas is so much better at building clean energy infrastructure than other states. No state has received an F yet, but they haven’t finished grading several of the coastal states.
My favorite part of this project is that if you click on a state, there are recommendations for how that state can improve its permitting processes.
What’s next?
Next week is loaded with economic data releases including construction spending, the critically important November jobs report, and more.