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


Olympic Stupidity

03/06/2012

The ’12 London Summer Olympics will bring little if any net benefits. Sure, 40K athletes and coaches will come, but regular tourists will stay away, bookings are already down, and 20% of locals plan to be out of town to…

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Inject Some Sanity

03/05/2012

Vaccine shortages; This industry has very high fixed costs to develop a vaccine (labs are costly), high fixed costs to produce a batch (it takes about a year), trivial marginal costs to make an extra dose within a batch (increasing…

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Pig Pen

03/02/2012

The Friday File: McDonald’s is pushing its pork suppliers to stop confining breeding sows, of which there are 5.7 million, in gestation stalls, and instead place them in large pens. While this sounds great, it costs money and studies show…

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Money for Nothing

03/01/2012

In Europe, Mario Draghi, the head of the ECB, is flooding banks with a $1 trillion euros ($1.3 trillion) at 1% in an effort to recapitalize them and maintain liquidity. Many banks are using this money to buy sovereign debt…

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Greek Gamble

02/29/2012

The latest Greek bailout is shaping up as a race between a fast shrinking economy and better access to credit and lower interest payments that hopefully encourage private sector growth. The problem is absent rapid growth in exports and tourism,…

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Gas Up, GDP Down

02/28/2012

Every penny rise in gas costs the economy $1.8 billion/yr. With gas at $3.65, 40 cents more than a year ago, that’s a $72 billion tax. If prices rise another 40 cents, bringing the price within six cents of the…

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Baby, Baby

02/27/2012

New research shows that a 10% rise in house prices leads to a 1% decrease in births among non-homeowners, who must now save more and do so by delaying having kids. However, this negative effect is more than offset by…

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What is That Worth?

02/24/2012

The cost of noise: In NYC, a 500 sq ft studio near 70th and 2nd Ave. rents for $1,800 a month or $43/sq ft. But due to ongoing noise, dust and explosions from nearby subway work, the apartment now rents…

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$uper Bowl

02/23/2012

The Super Bowl was viewed by 111.3 million people and 47% of all households with TVs. While the number who watched set a record, the percentage figure was #12 all-time. The final episode of MASH which was viewed by 60%…

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Marriage: Losing its Appeal?

02/22/2012

Marriage rates have been falling for decades, especially among the lower classes. It’s because lower class women tend to work but lower class men don’t. Thus, these women find no economic gain from marrying. As these trends work their way…

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