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


Columbus’ Consequences

10/05/2012

The Friday File: As we celebrate Christopher Columbus, note his was a voyage of economics. He was seeking a trade route to transport high value-to-weight items to Europe. Instead, he found the New World and precious metals. Those metals caused…

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Carrier Consolidation

10/04/2012

Unlike the AT&T/T-Mobile merger which regulators rejected, the proposed T-Mobile/Metro PCS merger will get quick DOJ and FTC approval. Why? While the AT&T merger would have eliminated the largest low-priced competitor from the marketplace and increased industry concentration at the…

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Power Diplomacy

10/03/2012

In ’05, the US imported 60% of its oil; now it’s 42% and falling. This has had profound geopolitical impacts. The rise in US oil production since ’05 is roughly equal to what Iran was exporting prior to UN sanctions.…

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Downtown Domicile

10/02/2012

Between ‘00 and ‘10, Chicago had the largest numerical increase in its downtown population (defined as areas within two miles of City Hall) at 48,288, NYC was next at 37,422, Philadelphia at 20,769, Salt Lake at 19,712, and DC with…

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Pain in Spain

10/01/2012

In an effort to avoid a sovereign bailout and curry favor with the ECB, Spain will cut spending by $51 billion in ’13, almost 3% of GDP! Amazingly, this belt tightening is occurring during a recession! As a result, the…

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Seeing is Believing

09/28/2012

The Friday File: In the year immediately following cataract surgery, motor-vehicle accidents involving men fell 16%, while the number of accidents involving women fell just 6.7%. Why? Women seem to restrict their driving as their vision deteriorates. Prior to surgery,…

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Good Call

09/27/2012

The NFL owners’ decision to lock-out their referees shows how important referees are, but not if they deserve a raise to $189,000 from the $149,000 they were making. That’s because we never saw how well the next best referees (those…

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Electric Extortion

09/26/2012

A Maryland Public Service Commission law designed to promote energy conservation is being redesigned. The law originally allowed public utilities to charge rate-payers a surcharge whenever electricity use fell short. The unintended consequence, utilities had less incentive to quickly restore…

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The Name Game

09/25/2012

In the 15 presidential elections starting in ’52, the Republicans always lose if the name Bush or Nixon fails to appear on the ticket (’64 (Goldwater/Miller), ’76 (Ford/Dole), ’96 (Dole/Kemp) ’08 (McCain/Palin)). However, the Republicans win nine out of 11…

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Bank Bummer

09/24/2012

While bank profits rose 21% in Q2 ’12 compared to a year earlier, looks can be deceiving. Much of the increase is due to one-time releases from loan-loss reserves. Worse, net interest margins fell to 3.46% in Q2 from 3.52%…

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