Posts Tagged ‘Economics and graphsandlaughs’
Healthy Demand
Obamacare will reduce demand for employees at firms with slightly less than 50 workers and for hires wanting more than 30 hours/week of work. It’ll also reduce the supply of labor. Now, many employees work for health insurance. Once insurance becomes easily available and heavily subsidized for the poor, a major reason to work will…
Read MorePlunging Purchases
Purchases of new homes plunged 13.4% in July to only 394,000, the steepest drop in years underscoring the uneven pace of recovery. Worse, April, May and June new home sales were revised sharply lower and are officially in the books at just 446,000, 439,000 and 445,000 respectively. Moreover, the sales rate is only 6.8% higher…
Read MoreWalking Dead
In 1980, a record 8,070 pedestrians were killed crossing streets. By 2009, the number hit an all-time low of 4,109. Since then it has been rising, to 4,280 in 2010 and 4,432 in 2011. Pedestrians account for 14% of traffic fatalities, and 70% of all pedestrians killed are men. Florida has the highest rate of…
Read MoreFly With Facts
The Friday File: While flying seems risky compared to automobile travel, seems is the operative word. For the decade ending in 2008 passenger fatalities per 100 million miles were 0.72 for automobiles, 0.05 for buses and trains and 0.01 for airlines. That means flying in a plane is 72 times safer than riding in a…
Read MoreGreener Greenback
The dollar has been dramatically strengthening against most currencies of late and this will hurt US exports by making them more expensive in local currency and boosting imports, worsening our trade deficit. It’s happening because as our economy strengthens, interest rates will rise, making our currency more desirable to hold. By contrast, interest rate increases…
Read MoreDarling Deflation!
The Friday File: With fear of inflation finally receding, the new concern is deflation. While high unemployment keeps wage growth in check, the price for sage business advice has absolutely tanked. Last year, lunch with Warren Buffet was auctioned off for a record $3.5 million; this year, just $1,000,100, a stunning 71.4% decline! At that…
Read MorePolitics and Pipelines
In an upset, the British Columbia Liberal Party narrowly won re-election over the left-leaning New Democratic Party. Importantly, the biggest plank in the Liberal’s platform was backing pipelines to transport oil and gas from Alberta through BC to the Pacific coast, as well as the building of tanker terminals. Now, since oil from the tar-sands…
Read MoreDry Policy
The Friday file: Since 1940, raisin farmers have been required to give away a percentage of their crop to the Raisin Administrative Committee. The RAC annually decides how many raisins are needed and confiscates the rest. In 2003, farmers forfeited 47% of their crop! In a case now before the Supreme Court, raisin farmers are…
Read MoreWatch List
The Friday File: In 2011, 1.15 billion watches sold for $30 billion. China sold the most, almost 700 million pieces, and at an average price of $2/watch; their industry was worth $1.5 billion. By contrast, the average price of the 30 million Swiss watches was $685/watch, making their industry worth $20.5 billion. Hong Kong was…
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