70 Words

Costlier Healthcare, Lower Productivity

10/25/2012

As healthcare co-payments rise, labor productivity drops as, unsurprisingly, employees buy fewer prescription drugs. For example, employees with chronic pain had 76.7 hours absent from work. But, for every $5 rise in their co-payment, absenteeism increased 1.3% to 3.1%, or…

Read More

Bernanke Boost

10/24/2012

While the economy is hardly roaring, Q3 GDP growth will be 2%, which is pretty good compared to month or two ago when 1.5% is what I would have predicted. Moreover, QE3 should boost Q4 GDP. That’s because the promise…

Read More

Hold the Healthcare

10/23/2012

24 million workers work 30 hours/week or less. For the purpose of Obamacare, these are part-timers and need not receive employer provide healthcare. Another 10 million workers work between 30 and 35 hours/week. If employers can hold those 10 million…

Read More

Peak Employment

10/22/2012

Peak Employment The employment to population ratio peaked at about 65% and just prior to the last recession was 63%. During the recession, the rate quickly plummeted to about 58.5% and has barely budged since. While part of the decline…

Read More

Making a Racket

10/19/2012

The Friday File: Old tennis rackets focused on power and a sweet spot. With new polyester blend strings, topspin is in. For every 100 rpm’s of topspin you reduce distance travelled by 6 to 12 inches. Spin is created three…

Read More

Housing Health

10/18/2012

Poor families that moved out of bad neighborhoods into mixed-income ones through the use of vouchers, did not show any rise in income level or educational attainment compared to a control group that did not move. Mover families were, however,…

Read More

Weighed Down

10/17/2012

In 2010, the percentage of American adults who were 100 or more pounds overweight, severely obese, was 6.6%, or 15.5 million people, up dramatically from 3.9% a decade earlier, an increase of 70%! While moderate obesity (30 to 100 pounds…

Read More

Matching Nobels

10/16/2012

Americans Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shipley won the Nobel Prize in economics for improving how to best match different sets of agents, such as organ donors and recipients, and agents and institutions, such as students with schools and doctors with…

Read More

Back is Best

10/15/2012

While being in the front has its appeal, when it comes to surviving plane crashes, the back is best. In a recent deliberate plane crash designed to mimic the real thing, dummy-passengers in the front experiences 12 times the force…

Read More

Happy Birthday

10/12/2012

The Friday File: In 2011, more newborns were born in August, 360,000, than any other month. July and September were next with 346,000 each. The least most popular month was February with 299,000. In ’11, the most popular names for…

Read More

Recent Posts

Categories

Archives