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While some are unemployed by choice and some due to a lack of necessary skills, I do not think it’s that many. Here’s why. There are 14 million unemployed and 3.1 million job openings, or 4.6 jobless workers per opening.…
China has 46K miles of highways; we have barely 47K. China plans to build out to 112.5K miles by ’30 yet there are just one-third as many cars in China as here, and worse, Chinese highways have high tolls, to…
Obama’s latest effort to help underwater homeowners, who are current, refinance at lower rates will help, but, it’s no panacea. Estimates are that a million households will take advantage of this plan and will, on average, save $2,500/year. If all…
The Friday File: The US economy has lost manufacturing jobs as foreigners can often make things more cheaply than we can. What manufacturing remains is increasingly high end; it’s less easily outsourced. But, there are exceptions. In Americus, GA 50…
Earlier this week, the Congress passed free trade agreements with Columbia, Panama and South Korea. Passage may be hailed as a political achievement for promoting principals of free trade and for shoring up allies. Unfortunately, it will not do much…
Big bank stocks are all down but shares of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley especially so. Regulatory changes like the Volcker Rule prohibiting proprietary trading hurt all big banks but especially GS and MS as they rely more heavily on…
Delta and USAir are swapping slots at Washington’s Reagan and New York’s LaGauardia. In exchange the FAA is requiring that both airlines free up 8 slots at Reagan and 16 at LaGuardia. The slots will then be auctioned off by…
Because Sprint now sells iphones (as of 10/1/11), its bottom line will take a hit. The extra subsidy cost of selling an iphone to an existing Sprint customer (rather than a Droid phone) is $100. Based on data from Verizon…
The Friday File: Baseball’s 3 teams with the highest payrolls are watching the playoffs on TV. The Yankees ($202.6 million) were upset by the Detroit Tigers ($105.7 million), while the Philadelphia Phillies ($172.9 million) were upset by the St Louis…
Firms frequently buyback their own shares when they think they are undervalued. Problem is, firms often get it wrong! So far this year HP has spent $7.6 billion to buy 200 million shares at about $38/share. In ’10 HP spent…