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The Friday File: Bureaucrats write regulatory orders that are generally incomprehensible because they try to obscure the fact that they’re forbidding you from doing what you want. Occasionally, a top regulator will force his/her agency to write in plain English.…
Things can’t possibly be good when yesterday, in less than an hour, the ECB, The Bank of China, and The Bank of England all offered monetary medicine to the weakening global economy. Problem is, easier monetary policy won’t help much.…
This 4th of July, there’s a 33% chance your hot dog or pork sausage comes from IA, with the runner up states being NC and MN. There’s a 17% chance your burger comes from TX with NE and KS being…
Since ‘09, Asian immigrants have outnumbered Latin American. In ‘10 430,000 Asians came to the US (36% of all new immigrants), compared to 370,000 Hispanics (31%). Since ’00, 14% of Asian immigrants have been undocumented compared to 45% of Hispanics.…
The Friday File: Internet scammers must minimize false positives (targets that are attacked yet yield nothing) and false negatives (viable targets that are not attacked). It’s because scamming costs time and money and misidentifying false positives is very costly. To…
Following recessions this severe, economic recoveries are usually quite robust. But not this time. Why? Chronic lack of credit kills sales, depresses investment, and hurts productivity. Prolonged levels of high unemployment erode worker skills, making it hard for the unemployed…
To cool down an overheated housing market, the Canadian government, in a move called for by some big banks, is reducing the maximum mortgage length to 25 years from 30 (no balloons), decreasing the maximum one can borrow against a…
Bank Run 101: Spaniards withdraw euros from Spanish banks and deposit them in German banks. Since Spanish banks still have the same loans outstanding, they go to the Spanish Central Bank for loans. Since all Spanish banks need money, the…
While Uruguay’s bid to legalize marijuana sales makes it the first state to go to pot to raise revenues, the effort should be applauded. President Mijica’s proposal would charge the state with oversight over planting, grading and distribution of Marijuana.…
The ongoing euro-zone debt crisis has been a borrowing bonanza to both Switzerland (not part of the EU) and Denmark (part of the EU but not the euro-zone). On Tuesday, Denmark issued 2-year bonds with a yield of -0.223% while…