Daniel R. Levitan's Page

Leaving my home to drive to my office this morning I noticed that a motorist had been pulled over across the street by a policeman, the same location in which I had seen several similar situations over the past few weeks and I realized that my neighborhood was apparently the location of a new speed trap.  While I welcomed the fact…

“I was born ready” – I am certain that you’ve heard this cliché in dozens of movies including Big Trouble in Little China, Oceans 13, Just Friends, Blade Trinity and New Jack City.  It makes a good and sometimes even great line of dialogue in a film but I have my doubts that…

“Simple Gifts” is a Shaker dance song written and composed in 1848 by Elder Joseph Brackett and one of the better known American folk songs.  It is my favorite portion of Aaron Copeland’s Appalachian Spring and equally enjoyable as performed by Yo-Yo Ma and Alison Krauss (available on YouTube). Many of my readers are probably familiar with the lyrics: 

‘Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis…

The homebuilding industry, at least for many of the larger builders, has become far more sophisticated in recent years thanks in part to the almost limitless amount of data that we have available to analyze.  New economic facts including employment data, balance of trade, inflation, CPI movement, consumer…