70 Words
The Friday File: Despite Sunday being the 50th anniversary of Marilyn Monroe’s death, she’s as popular as ever. In ’10, $25 million was spent to purchase her name and likeness, and last year Monroe ranked #3 on the list of…
A healthy economy exhibits many things including steady growth in median (and mean) income. Unfortunately, after peaking in ‘99 at $53,252, inflation adjusted median income in the US is now $49,445 – almost $4,000 lower than in ’99 and back…
Despite crippling drought, US food prices will rise little as only 15% of each food dollar is attributable to farm products. Thus, even a 100% rise in corn prices would lift the CPI by 1.5%. And if this drought is…
On 7/5/12 the ECB reduced to zero the rate it pays banks that park excess reserves with it. The Fed is now considering following suit. There are $1.5 trillion of excess reserves at the Fed which if loaned, would help…
Despite inevitably higher food prices starting this fall, stemming from a severe drought, the Fed will ignore this when they launch a third round of Quantitative Easing in September. It’s because the drought is a short-term event that will probably…
The Friday File: Turns out people who eat chocolate on a regular basis (five or more times a week), tend to weigh about 5 to 7 pounds less than those who don’t. The key finding from a recent study was…
Following the collapse of the U.S.S.R., 300 of their top mathematicians moved here. Their impact on American mathematicians was surprising. The number of papers published by American mathematicians whose research was most similar to that of the Russians dropped dramatically,…
While stores have always been able to offer cash-paying customers a discount, the recent settlement with Visa, Mastercard and bank credit-card issuers now allows stores to add a charge (equal to the swipe fee) for credit-card payments. Since stores can…
If you were worried the economy might be treading water, relax, it is. Consumer spending is flat, consumer confidence and manufacturing activity are down and jobless claims are up. Moreover, a key index of leading economic indicators fell two of…
Unless welfare recipients are penniless, passing laws prohibiting them from spending their welfare money on booze, gambling, strippers and tattoos is pointless. These laws will simply encourage welfare recipients to spend any cash they earn on the prohibited activities. Even…