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


Exceptional Eaters

07/03/2014

While started in 1972, 1979 marked the start of the “modern era” of the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. The winner that year, Thomas Stash, stashed 19 in 10 minutes. By 2000 the record was 25.125. In 2001 the great…

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Poor Productivity

07/02/2014
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Car Crisis

07/01/2014

With its 45th recall this year totaling 8.5 million cars, GM has now recalled 28.5 million cars worldwide and has raised its total recall-related charges to almost $3 billion; just $105/car! At that low price/car, GM appears to be recalling…

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Wonky Wages

06/30/2014

Seattle’s decision to boost its minimum wage to $15/hour, the highest anywhere, is bad policy. Unlike a rise in the federal minimum wage which affects all employers, this increase only applies inside the city. Thus, employers in low-wage industries in…

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Super Stamp

06/27/2014

The Friday File: Last week the only British Guiana One-Cent Magenta stamp (BGOCM) was sold at auction for a record $9.48 million, breaking the old record of $2.2 million for the Treskilling Yellow in 1996. Amazingly, the BGOCM has broken…

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Wretched War

06/26/2014

This Saturday is the 100th anniversary of the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria — heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne — and his wife Sophie – which set in motion the start of WWI exactly one month later. 8.5…

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Pathetic Predictions

06/25/2014

On 4/30/14 Q1 GDP (which ended a month earlier) was estimated at 0.1%. On 5/29/14 it was revised down to -1.0%, and on 6/25/14, three months after the end of Q1, it was knocked down to -2.9%! The difference between…

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Nice News!

06/24/2014

On Monday we learned that existing home sales in May jumped 4.9% to a rate of 4.89 million/year, the best pace since last October. Better yet, yesterday we learned that new home sales jumped from a rate of 433,000/year in…

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Alternative Approaches

06/23/2014

Inflation as measured by the CPI is 2.1%, as measured by personal consumption expenditures (PCE) is 1.6%, below the Fed’s 2% target. Importantly, the Fed uses the PCE to monitor inflation. Historically, the PCE is 0.5% lower than the CPI,…

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Budget Brew

06/20/2014

The Friday File: Dividing the cost of a beer by the minimum wage tells you how much work it takes to buy suds. Amazingly, it takes 12 minutes to afford a beer in Puerto Rico and 18 minutes to buy…

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