Archive for September 2012
Seeing is Believing
The Friday File: In the year immediately following cataract surgery, motor-vehicle accidents involving men fell 16%, while the number of accidents involving women fell just 6.7%. Why? Women seem to restrict their driving as their vision deteriorates. Prior to surgery, men in the study drove an average of 84 miles a week, women 52. There…
Read MoreGood Call
The NFL owners’ decision to lock-out their referees shows how important referees are, but not if they deserve a raise to $189,000 from the $149,000 they were making. That’s because we never saw how well the next best referees (those in the top college leagues and those recently retired from the NFL) would have done,…
Read MoreElectric Extortion
A Maryland Public Service Commission law designed to promote energy conservation is being redesigned. The law originally allowed public utilities to charge rate-payers a surcharge whenever electricity use fell short. The unintended consequence, utilities had less incentive to quickly restore power after storms. Imagine that! Now, the MPSC will only allow the surcharge for 24…
Read MoreThe Name Game
In the 15 presidential elections starting in ’52, the Republicans always lose if the name Bush or Nixon fails to appear on the ticket (’64 (Goldwater/Miller), ’76 (Ford/Dole), ’96 (Dole/Kemp) ’08 (McCain/Palin)). However, the Republicans win nine out of 11 times when either of those names is present, losing only in ’60 (Nixon/Lodge) and ’92…
Read MoreBank Bummer
While bank profits rose 21% in Q2 ’12 compared to a year earlier, looks can be deceiving. Much of the increase is due to one-time releases from loan-loss reserves. Worse, net interest margins fell to 3.46% in Q2 from 3.52% in Q1. And margins will shrink further as yields on deposits can’t fall more, and…
Read MoreSticky Situation
The Friday File: 10 million pounds of Quebec maple syrup, street value $40 million, and about 10% of Quebec’s ’12 harvest, has been stolen! Luckily, the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers, suppliers of 77% of the world’s maple syrup, maintain a strategic reserve of 30 million pounds to stabilize world prices. But, there’ll be…
Read MoreBanksters
What makes the LIBOR scandal so troubling is that the banks involved deliberately prevented us from understanding how serious the banking and liquidity crisis of ‘08 was. Had we known how high LIBOR rates were, things could have been done to limit the ensuing carnage. By lying about rates, the price mechanism was not allowed…
Read MoreCould be Worse!
Greece has been in recession since Q3 ‘08. During that time, new car registrations have fallen 82%, back to where they were in the late ‘80s, and GDP has fallen 18%. Here, at their worst, car sales were down 56% and now are now down just 18% from where they were before the recession. At…
Read MoreBoy-O-Boy!
104.5 boys are born for every 100 girls to offset boys’ greater probability of dying in infancy. Due to falling fertility, cheap ultrasounds, and son preference, baby girls are, in many parts of the world, rare. In India, the rate is 108 boys/100-females, in Armenia 116, in China 120! The gap rises with income and…
Read MoreChecked Out
Last Saturday, NHL owners locked out players (who knew?) following expiration of their contract. The last strike, in 2004, wiped out an entire season and players ultimately agreed to a 24% rollback, reducing their take to 57% of revenues. Owners are now demanding a further 17.5% rollback to 47%. Players are unwilling to concede much…
Read More