Economics

Obama’s Chained CPI Controversy Explained

April 15, 2013

In last week’s budget announcement, the Obama administration included a provision which has liberals howling.  Without delving into mudslinging about political motivations, feigned outrage and the slanted media coverage this proposal has generated, let alone the irony that this measly cut was mixed in with $1 Trillion in tax increases during the same 10 year [...]

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5 Reasons Why Bitcoins are the Dumbest Investment Ever

April 4, 2013

If you haven’t heard of bitcoins by now, you will soon.  They were recently profiled in this week’s BusinessWeek, they have skyrocketed since the Cyprus banking mess and in a nutshell, it’s an alternative currency play which resides in cyberspace only – there is no physical exchange, no regulatory oversight, not even an inkling as [...]

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Poll: Has the Fiscal Cliff Uncertainty Affected Your Spending or Financial Plans at All?

December 23, 2012

There are 2 main camps when it comes to economics and politics – some feel that people and businesses will go about their routine patterns of spending, saving, investing and hiring regardless of any “uncertainty” and another camp that feels all the uncertainty we’re constantly facing gives people and leaders pause, which constantly constrains behavior [...]

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Robots and Automation Are Taking American Jobs – Think Your Job is Safe?

December 16, 2012

You’d think the same headline would be the prominent theme of every year since the 1800s. After all, we’ve seen a decline in the need from everything from lamplighters once electricity was invented to farm workers once farming equipment, tractors and trucks came along. However, for various reasons throughout 2012, there’s been a steady debate [...]

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The Cost of Lice: A Financial Evaluation from Recent Experience

December 2, 2012

Lice is nasty, I know.  But now that we’ve had the second brush with it from someone we know, and our kids were around the other affected kids last week, we’re going through our own precautionary measures ourselves to make sure it doesn’t pop up here – and it’s expensive!  A few months back, a [...]

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How Much Can You Make Garbage-Picking in Suburbia?

November 20, 2012

Maybe you’re above trash-picking, but the guy who drives around my neighborhood on trash night isn’t.  Going back a few months, I remember a guy pulling up and picking up some old baby stuff we were tossing.  We usually donate or try to sell a few things on Craigslist, but this stuff was really bottom [...]

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Americans Subsidize the World’s Medical Costs – Fair?

October 14, 2012

The United States has the most expensive health care in the world. In 2010, the combined cost of public and private spending on medical care came to $8,233 per person in the United States. Putting the high price of medical spending in terms of GDP gives a true comparison. In the United States, 18.2% of [...]

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Now I Know Where I Stand Financially. Wow.

September 20, 2012

One of my old favorite economics blogs Political Calculations has a neat tool that allows you to plug in your personal and family income and it spits out where you stand in relation to your fellow Americans. I put in my numbers for both my routine W-2 income and then the total family income by [...]

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QE3: 11 Winners and Losers

September 16, 2012

Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve are ready to stimulate the economy at any cost. The Fed will inject $40 billion per month in mortgage-backed securities purchases. This policy is good for some, bad for many. Let’s keep track of the score. 11 Winners and Losers from QE3 1. Winner: Banks – Banks are inflation [...]

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Trash as an Economic Indicator

August 26, 2012

We throw it out every day of the week, but the data we glean from it might just be good as gold. This week I stumbled upon an article at Free Republic about the relationship between trash and economic output. It’s almost scary how well these two data points come crashing together: America’s Consumption Economy [...]

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