Econ70
As 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…
Read MoreOne reason car sales hit an annualized rate of 13.5 million units in December, the best showing in years, is lenders are chasing borrowers who are behind on their mortgages! From Q1 throughQ3 ’11 205K loans were made to buyers…
Read MoreStarting today, my emails posts are being sent using new technology. To that end, above this email is a “button” that allows you to opt out of receiving my posts. I hope you elect not to click it! For those…
Read MoreThe Friday File: According to a recent Bureau of Labor Statistics study, married full-time working childless women work 8 minutes more a day than their full-time working spouses if you include both office and housework. For similar couples with children…
Read MoreWhile Bernanke undoubtedly wanted to do more in the way of monetary stimulus than he did, yesterday’s Fed’s decision to explicitly commit to keeping rates low through late ’14, was the best he could do in place of another round…
Read MoreThe IMF sees global growth in ’12 slowing to 3.25% from 4% in ’11. It’s because the 17 nation Euro-zone will contract by 0.5% and China’s growth will slow from 9% to 8.2%. Growth here is expected to be 2%;…
Read More