Posts Tagged ‘funniest economist’
Exceptional Eaters
While started in 1972, 1979 marked the start of the “modern era” of the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. The winner that year, Thomas Stash, stashed 19 in 10 minutes. By 2000 the record was 25.125. In 2001 the great Takeru Kobayashi (who won six straight championships) obliterated the record by eating 50. Since 2007…
Read MorePoor Productivity
Car Crisis
With its 45th recall this year totaling 8.5 million cars, GM has now recalled 28.5 million cars worldwide and has raised its total recall-related charges to almost $3 billion; just $105/car! At that low price/car, GM appears to be recalling every vehicle ever made and getting all the bad news out now. Kidding aside, the…
Read MoreWonky Wages
Seattle’s decision to boost its minimum wage to $15/hour, the highest anywhere, is bad policy. Unlike a rise in the federal minimum wage which affects all employers, this increase only applies inside the city. Thus, employers in low-wage industries in Seattle will be at a distinct financial disadvantage compared to similar firms outside Seattle. This…
Read MoreSuper Stamp
The Friday File: Last week the only British Guiana One-Cent Magenta stamp (BGOCM) was sold at auction for a record $9.48 million, breaking the old record of $2.2 million for the Treskilling Yellow in 1996. Amazingly, the BGOCM has broken the world record for a single stamp auction price each of the last four times…
Read MoreWretched War
This Saturday is the 100th anniversary of the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria — heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne — and his wife Sophie – which set in motion the start of WWI exactly one month later. 8.5 million soldiers were killed, 21.2 million were wounded, and 7.8 million were prisoners or went…
Read MorePathetic Predictions
On 4/30/14 Q1 GDP (which ended a month earlier) was estimated at 0.1%. On 5/29/14 it was revised down to -1.0%, and on 6/25/14, three months after the end of Q1, it was knocked down to -2.9%! The difference between the first and the third estimates of Q1 GDP is three percentage points, or $125…
Read MoreAlternative Approaches
Inflation as measured by the CPI is 2.1%, as measured by personal consumption expenditures (PCE) is 1.6%, below the Fed’s 2% target. Importantly, the Fed uses the PCE to monitor inflation. Historically, the PCE is 0.5% lower than the CPI, as is the case now. The reason; the PCE accounts for changes in consumer buying…
Read MoreBudget Brew
The Friday File: Dividing the cost of a beer by the minimum wage tells you how much work it takes to buy suds. Amazingly, it takes 12 minutes to afford a beer in Puerto Rico and 18 minutes to buy one in Australia and Luxembourg. Here it takes 24 minutes. Across Europe it averages 45…
Read MoreBook Betting
The current fight between book publisher Hachette and Amazon over pricing is one between a cartel (the publishers) and a monopolist (Amazon). Turns out e-books are 40% more profitable for publishers and 40% less remunerative to authors than hardcover books! Thus, it’s not surprising Amazon is squeezing Hachette over e-book pricing. The likely outcome; Hachette…
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