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


Financial Fitness

07/21/2017

The Friday File: 43% of women say knowing a person’s credit score would have an impact on their willingness to date someone; only 32% of men said the same. By education, 47% of college graduates say knowing the FICO score…

Overprescribed Opioids

07/20/2017

Opioid addiction (OA), including addiction to prescription painkillers and illicit narcotics (heroin), has surged 500% since 2010, while medications use to treat OA grew by just 65%. OA is up partly because 21% of Americans filled at least one opioid…

Whither Whites

07/19/2017

For the first time, the US population under 10 is majority minority. Overall, 61.3% of the population is white, 17.8% are Hispanic, 12.4% are Black non-Hispanic, 5.7% are Asian, 2.1% are multiracial and 0.7% are Native American. In 2016, Nevada…

Difficult Deductions

07/18/2017

Of the 170 deductions/exemptions/credits/exclusions, the six largest in FY2018 are: exclusion of employer contributions for medical insurance/care at $236 billion, preferential treatment of pension contributions at $200 billion, exclusion of owner-occupied rental income at $112.7 billion, corporate income held abroad…

Deliberate Death

07/17/2017

Last week, Nobel Peace laureate and strong democracy and freedom advocate, Liu Xiaobo died while in custody in a Beijing hospital, becoming the second Peace Prize winner out of 97 to die in custody. The first was Carl von Ossietzky,…

Pulsating Pamplona

07/14/2017

The Friday File: This morning was the last of eight straight mornings of the running of bulls through Pamplona. Each morning 10 bulls run about 930 yards ending in the Plaza de Toros. 2,000 humans inexplicably run with the bulls.…

Fewer Firms

07/13/2017

In 1980, there were 4,500 public corporations in the US. That number steadily increased, peaking at 7,355 in 11/97. Since then it has steadily declined, and today there are slightly more than 3,500. Most of the decline can be traced…

Super Seoul

07/12/2017

Despite a growing nuclear threat from North Korea, Korean stocks are up 18% YTD. Improved earnings, a better domestic economy, diminished political uncertainty, and the spectacular performance of Samsung (which accounts for 25% of the index and is now more…

Seattle Slew

07/11/2017

Seattle raised its minimum wage from $9.47/hour to $11/hour in 2015 and $13/hour in 2016. While the first increase had minimal employment impact, the second damaged low-wage workers. At $13/hour, the number of low-wage hours worked declined by a whopping…

Minimal Money

07/10/2017

With 222,000 net new jobs in June and upward revisions totaling 47,000 for April and May, job creation is back on track with gusto! YTD job gains/month are averaging 180,000 and total 2.24 million Y-o-Y! The unemployment rate rose slightly…

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