Month: February 2012
Valentine’s Day spending this year is expected to reach an all-time high of $17.6 billion. Among the 140 million Americans planning to celebrate, average spending will be $126.03, up 8.5% over last year. The average male will spend $168.74 the…
Read MoreThe combination of high agricultural land values, competition for land from corn, soybeans and other crops, severe drought, the high price of feed and surging exports have raised live cattle prices to a record $1.26 per pound. Yet, farmers continue…
Read MoreThe Friday File: Economists find that an underdog tennis player is more likely to win if the winner of that match must then play a top ranked opponent. The highly ranked next opponent causes both players to “save” themselves so…
Read MoreThe latest employment report was great, but a little perspective, please. The labor force participation rate is now 63.7% it lowest level since 5/83! (The all-time high was 67.3% in 3/00). Worse, since the recession ended in 6/09, rather than…
Read MoreAs the Greek government defaults on its bonds, holders of Greek credit-default swaps will probably get nothing as the default will be “selective” and will thus not officially trigger a default. This not only hurts banks who thought they were…
Read MoreThe DC Transit system’s (bus and subway) annual budget is $1.56 billion. Half the money comes from fares, half from subsidies. About 675,000 roundtrips are taken daily. That works out to an annual subsidy of $1,100 per rider. Capitalized, that…
Read MoreThe Friday File: Since ’09 NFL teams have given big bucks to politicians. The Texans gave the most at 293K, the Chargers were next at 172K and the Jets were 3rd at 148K. They also favored Rs 2 to 1…
Read MoreAmazon recently announced earnings. And, while revenues and profit margins always change, ’11 was clearly not a banner year for earning. In Q4 ’11 Amazon had revenue of $17.4 billion but net income of only $177 million, a margin of…
Read MoreGood News: Vacancy rates at malls averaged 9.4% in Q4 ’11 down from an 11 year high of 9.6% in Q3 ’11 but way up from the all-time low of 5.5% in ’07. Meanwhile vacancy rates at strip malls held…
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