Daily Data Dump

The Secret of the Banks’ Success. 35% of the domestic American profits are now in finance. This much "intermediation" in our economy is like having to service the the enormous parasitic noble class of the Ancien Régime. Bad mutations are good for you. It's about fitness landscapes. In Narrow Roads of Gene Land W. D. Hamilton admits that his turn away from top-down eugenic policies had to do with this sort of issue. What's good is bad and what's bad is good, and so forth. Retail Sales increase sharply in March. The author of the Calculated Risk blog usually presents positive data by offering some skeptical pessimistic commentary. In this case it seems he left the charts to speak for themselves, which I take as a sign of optimism in this area. Though we're still a nation in personal debt, so I don't see where the $ for the consumption ...