The Bowtie Economist's Daily Dose of 70-Word Wisdom

Bernie Sanders’ single-payer healthcare proposal will probably cost $2.4 trillion/year, not the $1.4 trillion/year he estimates. The difference, savings generated. Single-payer can cut administrative costs by 5% to 7% (not 14% as suggested). The remaining savings depend on paying all…

Illegal drugs are roughly a $300 billion/year global industry and reducing supply has always been the preferred mode of combating them. Regrettably, the combination of very inelastic demand (meaning buyers are unresponsive to price changes primarily because the drugs are…

The Friday File: By analyzing 2 million phone calls, we now know Oregonians speak fastest, followed by residents from Minnesota, Massachusetts, Kansas, and Iowa. The slowest talkers are Mississippians, followed by residents from Louisiana, SC, AL, and NC. Those who…

While India’s economy is growing at 7.3%, China’s at 6.8%, and ours at 2.4%, India’s GDP is just $2 trillion, the same size as Italy’s while China’s is $10.4 trillion and ours is $17.4 trillion. At these growth rates, China…

With the Bank of Japan recently joining the European Central Bank and central banks in Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland in imposing negative interest rates, close to 30% of sovereign bonds now offer negative yields. As a result, banks in those…

Financial indicators such as yield spreads between investment grade bonds and junk bonds, equity values, inflation rates, Treasury yields and commodity prices suggest a weak economy and a moderately high recession probability. Yet car and home sales, employment growth, job…

The Friday File: Americans will spend $19.7 billion on Valentine’s Day, up from $18.9 billion last year and slightly higher than the GDP of Haiti. Of those celebrating Valentine’s Day, men will invest $196.39; women $99.87. The most popular gifts…

With fear and volatility pervasive, financial markets are stymieing central banks. In Japan, where the economy probably shrank in Q4, and where 10-year bond yields are negative as a result of negative interest rates having been recently introduced in an…

While most stock market declines are false alarms when it comes to predicting recessions, when the market declines by 20% or more, watch out. In the past 50 years there have been seven such declines. The worst three, 1973, 2001…

Despite a record 27.3 million Hispanics being eligible to vote in the fall elections, and almost half being Millennials, Hispanic influence will be muted. In 2012, just 37% of Hispanic Millennials eligible to vote voted, and over half of all…