Econ70
By bailing out large financial institutions and deliberately trying to inflate the value of stocks, bonds, houses and commodities (by driving interest rates down to microscopic levels), central banks around the globe are probably increasing the wealth gap between rich…
Read MoreIf the electoral college is deadlocked at 269 for each candidate, the House elects the president with each state delegation casting one vote. Given that the House will remain Republican, along with the many small-population Red states, Romney will get…
Read MoreThe Friday File: A bidder paid $39,000 for the turquoise wool suit Margaret Thatcher wore when she became leader of the Tories. Six other outfits she wore before she became PM were sold for another $77,000, far exceeding pre-auction estimates…
Read MoreThe economy grew at a rate of just 2% in Q3. The drought subtracted 0.4% from growth, slumping exports clipped 0.2%, and falling business investment took 0.1% off GDP. By contrast, increased consumer spending added 1.4% to growth and increased…
Read MoreHalloween spending is expected to hit $8 billion this year. $6.9 billion was spent in ’11 and the cyclical low of $4.8 billion was in ’09. Spending on pet costumes is way up with $370 million projected to be spent…
Read MoreWith Sandy disrupting 25% of the population for roughly three-quarters of a percent of the year, its maximum impact shouldn’t exceed $30 billion. But it’s probably less due to heavy telecommuting, Netflix and Amazon! Had Sandy hit an oil refinery…
Read MoreBy setting the value of the Renminbi unfairly low, Chinese exports are made artificially cheap, while (American) imports are artificially expensive. Normally, this would lead to a large increase in the money supply which would drive up domestic prices and…
Read MoreThe Friday File: Of the six actors who have played James Bond, Pierce Brosan was the most violent, knocking off an average of 19 people per film. The short lived George Lazenby, had the most conquests, beating out Sean Connery…
Read MoreAs healthcare co-payments rise, labor productivity drops as, unsurprisingly, employees buy fewer prescription drugs. For example, employees with chronic pain had 76.7 hours absent from work. But, for every $5 rise in their co-payment, absenteeism increased 1.3% to 3.1%, or…
Read MoreWhile the economy is hardly roaring, Q3 GDP growth will be 2%, which is pretty good compared to month or two ago when 1.5% is what I would have predicted. Moreover, QE3 should boost Q4 GDP. That’s because the promise…
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