Posts Tagged ‘Graphsandlaughs.net’
Airline Deregulation Hits Airlines
30 years after deregulation most airlines lose money. While high fuel prices don’t help they have only played a role recently. The key factors are plummeting demand following 9/11 that left demand weaker in ’09 than it was in ’00 and large cost difference between legacy carriers (LC) and low-cost carriers (LCC). LC costs have…
Read MoreAirline Bag Fees
US airlines collected $3.4 billion in bag fees in ’10, up 24% from ’09 according to a DOT report. Absent fees, airlines would probably be losing money. Las Vegas based Allegiant generated 29.2% of all their revenue from extra fees, more than any airline in the world. Among US carriers Delta generated the most revenue…
Read MorePro Sport, Small Impact
Despite its popularity, when compared to other industries, pro sports is very small. The $400 million recently paid for the Detroit Pistons is equal to the 468th ranked firm in the S&P 600 Small-Cap index (Stein-Mart). And Stein-Mart makes 10 times the revenue. When sports franchises try to shake down local governments for free stadiums,…
Read MorePolitical Problems Pemeate
A lack of progress over the U.S. debt ceiling and intensifying contagion concerns in Europe (Portugal, Spain and Italy may go the way of Greece and Ireland) have triggered a further flight-to-safety; equity markets are generally in retreat and quality government bonds are rallying. The weak job numbers make the possibility of QE3 more likely;…
Read MorePayroll Problems Persist
Nonfarm payrolls rose by a profoundly dismal 18K in June, way below the 125K gain expected by economists! Making things worse, job gains in May were revised down to 25K from 54K. The unemployment rate inched up by 0.1% to 9.2%. Government employment fell by 39K. If you include discouraged workers and those forced to…
Read MoreImplanted Explosives
The Law of Unintended Consequences: First our bodies and carry-on luggage were scanned before getting on a flight. Then, it was our shoes; still later it was gels and liquids. But to be successful terrorists must stay one step ahead of law enforcement. To that end, expect airport security to tighten up now that terrorists…
Read MoreDuty, Taxes and Behavior
While Americans are huge consumers of energy, Israelis are stingy. And, tax policy is why! The duty on all new cars is 100% (yes, 100%) and gas costs about $7.25/gal. As a result, most cars are small and get great mileage. Israeli’s also recycle 75% of their water (Spain’s next with at 25%). Coincidently, water…
Read MoreIsraeli Gas Prices
On the 2nd to last day of each month the Israeli gov’t determines the maximum price gas may be sold for the next month. So, on the 29th of June the gov’t announced that the maximum price gas may be sold for in July would be 8 cents less than in June. The cost of…
Read MoreBoycott Brings Benefit
Sorry about not blogging yesterday; I was floating in the Dead Sea. As for the cottage cheese boycott; it’s over. Two days ago the largest dairy in Israel caved in to the nation-wide boycott and reduced the price by 21%. Not surprisingly hours later the second biggest dairy followed suit and soon after that Tara…
Read MoreBooming Israeli Economy
The Israeli economy is booming! Unemployment is 6%, house prices are rising at a healthy clip and construction activity is ubiquitous. In 2 days, I have counted over 100 over cranes in use and new multifamily construction is literally, skyrocketing. The city of Modi’in, halfway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem has a population of 90,000;…
Read More