70 Words
McDonald’s Vs Subway
Depending on how you count, Subway is far and away the largest chain in the US with about 23K stores. McDonalds is a distant second at about 14K, Starbucks is third with 11K, Burger King follows at about 7K then Wendy’s at almost 6K. However, by annual revenue, McDonald’s is way ahead with $31 billion,…
Read MoreA Really Costly Vacation!
The Friday File: Believe it or not, the former Comptroller of Dixon, IL is accused of embezzling $30 million (annual budget just $9 million) since ’06 to finance a lavish (you think?) lifestyle. Making things worse, the City spent about $150,000 on accountants and auditors during that period and the only reason she was caught…
Read MoreWhere’s My Credit?
This recovery is anemic because total (household and government) debt is high and falling! Consumer credit actually declined by 2.5% in ’11 and total debt fell from 203% of GDP to 202% in ‘11; about $160,000/working age person. At the end of the ’01 recession debt was $80,000, and at the end of the ’91…
Read MoreTackling Taxes
With tax reform in the air here are three principles economists want reform based on. 1) Broaden the base and lower rates. Lower marginal rates distort behavior less. 2) Tax consumption not income. Taxing income discourages savings, investment and work. 3) Tax what you don’t want because taxes reduce the supply of whatever is taxed.…
Read MoreWhere’s baby?
Teen births fell another 9% to just 34 births per 1,000 girls in ’10, and are now at the lowest rate since data collection began in ’40. Since ’91 teen births have fallen by 44%. Absent that fall, there would now be 3.4 million more babies. MS leads with 55 births per 1,000 teen girls,…
Read MorePyramid Scheme
Egypt’s foreign reserves are shrinking fast, from $36 billion in late ’10 to just $15 billion now. FRs are declining because foreign currency earned through tourism has collapsed. If this trend is not soon reversed the Egyptian pound will have to fall in value to curb demand for imports. But, that will cause inflation. To…
Read MoreOdd Indicators
The Friday File: Economists use many indicators to estimate economic activity. Here are some of the oddest. Times are bad when; there is a spike in the reselling of cemetery plots, when the number of NFL games that are not blacked-out rises (because games are not sold out), when advertisements for the Marines highlight toughness,…
Read MoreTaxing Policy
The brain-dead DC Cab Commission recently decided to let hackers charge a dollar for each additional person only if they drive a van. This will, at the margin, cause large groups to squeeze into smaller cabs while letting individual riders enjoy the comfort of spacious vans. This perverse allocation of resources could be avoided by…
Read MoreIt’s a Gas!
With the price of natural gas ($2.20/million BTUs) plumbing depths not seen in a decade, and the price of diesel fuel nearing an all-time high, Shell (and other large oil companies) are finally considering investing the necessary $10-$15 billion to build natural gas to diesel processing facilities in Louisiana. This potential investment shows that firms…
Read MoreZombie Banks
Spanish bond yields are up again as the short term benefits of the ECBs massive, easy-money lending program (LTRO) dissipate, and the reality of a recession in Euroland sets in. Making things worse, some European banks used the cheap 1% LTRO money to buy lots of Spanish sovereign debt yielding 5%. As a result, if…
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