Archive for August, 2008
« Previous EntriesBusinomics Translated into Spanish !
Submitted by Businomics Blog
If you are more comfortable reading Spanish, this is good news for you. For more information on the Spanish edition, click here. It’s priced at 18.5 euros, which makes the American edition look like a bargain. There’s also a UK version. For more information about the plain-old American edition, click here.
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Obama’s acceptance speech
Submitted by Econbrowser
Barack Obama gave a fine speech at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday. But I’m troubled by what I see as its underlying economic philosophy.
As I listened to the speech by Barack Obama accepting the nomination of the Democratic Party for the U.S. presidency, I felt I was listening to a very gifted [...]
Stock Buybacks Again
Submitted by unsettling economics
I have written a couple times about the irrationality of stock buybacks from the standpoint of corporations using their money to manipulate stocks in expectation of higher bonuses. Today’s Wall Street Journal offers another take on the subject. Besides providing a sense of the magnitude of stock buybacks, the article concentrates on [...]
The Beauty of Markets and Markets of Beauty
Submitted by unsettling economics
In looking through William Stanley Jevons’ Principles of Economics, mostly a collection of unpublished fragments, Jevons concluded a section on negative value with a fascinating story from Herodotus on auctions in the Babylonian marriage market. The story speaks for itself and requires no commentary on my part.
137: “According to Herodotus the Babylonians [...]
How Pervasive is Discrimination in Higher Ed?
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Former Harvard President Lawrence Summers on the issue of female under-representation in tenured positions in science and engineering at top universities and research institutions at NBER’s Conference on Diversifying the Science and Engineering Workforce in 2005:
If it was really the case that everybody was discriminating, there would be very substantial opportunities for [...]
Remember Davy Crockett: It’s Not Yours To Give
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
G.M.’s vice chairman, Robert A. Lutz, said Thursday that automakers were “deserving” of as much as $50 billion in government-backed loans so that they can build more fuel-efficient cars.
From Davy Crockett’s “It Not Yours To Give” story:
The power of collecting and disbursing money at pleasure is the most dangerous power that can [...]
Exxon Shareholders Suffer Windfall Loss of -13.7%
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Exxon’s record profits and its possible “windfall profits” have received a lot of media attention recently - do a Google search for “Exxon’s record taxes” or “Exxon’s windfall profits” and you’ll find several hundred thousand results for either. Do a Google News search for “windfall profits tax Senator Obama” and you’ll find [...]
Ben Stein Asks Some Good Questions
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
I would argue that over the long term, oil companies’ profits relative to sales are not above average for industrial or financial companies. But even if they were, why punish the owners of the oil companies, who are largely pension plans, group or individual, and individual investors (see chart above)? Why should [...]
Change We Dare Not Believe In: Audacity of Hype
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Economist Thomas Sowell unloads on Obama.
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Starbucks vs. The Little Guy
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
As anti-corporate crusaders are now discovering, instead of advocating for legal prohibitions on chain stores or attempting to zone the offending businesses off of Main Street USA, mom-and-pop shops can successfully combat the coffee behemoth by using old-fashioned market competition.
Watch the ReasonTV video here: STARBUCKS VS. THE LITTLE GUY
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ReasonTV: Stop Outsourcing Roles in Pro-Obama Videos to Foreigners
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
From ReasonTV (note that this is a spoof/parody, Reason is strongly pro-free trade).
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Electoral Map Based on Home Prices?
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
On this recent CD post, I featured the top map above (click to enlarge) showing annual home prices changes from OFHEO. In the light blue states, home prices have increased over the last year year (2007:Q2 to 2008:Q2), and in the yellow and red states home prices have declined, with the largest [...]
Economy of Words
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Some 94% of Americans polled by Harris Interactive this month said they were satisfied with the lives they lead. According to Gallup, only 9% of Americans are dissatisfied with their jobs and only 13% are dissatisfied with their job security. The unemployment rate is at a five-year high of 5.7%, but it [...]
Intrade 2008 Recession Odds At All-Time Low: 17%
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Lifetime:
Link
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Real Disposable Income Up By 11.4% in QII
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
According to today’s BEA report (Table 10), real disposable personal income increased in July by 1.2% compared to July last year, following a 3.4% annual increase in June and 6.3% increase in May (see chart above). Both growth rates (May and June) were above the 2.6% average growth in real disposable income [...]
Why Does It Feel Like a Recession?
Submitted by Econbrowser
The preliminary GDP release today provided a number of surprises. The first surprise was not that GDP was higher than the advance release (given the June trade figures reported earlier this month), but rather that at 3.3% it exceeded the 2.8% (SAAR) of the consensus [0]. The second surprise is that the reduction [...]
Fat Cat Oil Shareholders? No, “Broadly Middle-Class”
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
According to the study “The Distribution of Ownership of U.S. Oil and Natural Gas Companies,” authored by Robert J. Shapiro and Nam D. Pham of Sonecon:
The data suggest that ownership of oil and natural gas company shares is broadly middle-class.
1. 42.7% are owned or held by mutual funds and other asset [...]
Recession Spoiler: Real GDP Grew At 3.3% in Q2
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Real GDP exceed consensus expectations and grew at an annual rate of 3.3% in the second quarter 2008 (see chart above), a significant upward revision from the 1.9% advance estimate one month ago. According to First Trust Advisors, “The largest drag on real GDP continues to be home building, which subtracted [...]
Exxon Mobil Per Second: $1,400 in Profits, But It Pays $4,000 in Taxes, $15,000 in Operating Costs
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Obama thinks government is not getting a “reasonable share” of oil companies’ profits, which in 2007 were, as a percentage of revenue (8.3%), below those of U.S. manufacturing generally (8.9 %). Exxon Mobil pays almost as much in corporate taxes to various governments as the bottom 50% of American earners pay in [...]
GOP VP Odds on Intrade.com
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Romney: 45%
Pawlenty: 21%
Hutchinson: 16.1%
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Rubonomics for the People
Submitted by unsettling economics
Like many of you, I was a bit dismayed when Obama turned to Robert Rubin and his coterie for economic advice. I now admit that I was mistaken. According to Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal, Citicorp has been paying Robert Rubin $17 million a year for a part-time job with no responsibility. Judging [...]
President John F. Kennedy, Early Supply Sider
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
In this video from August 13, 1962, when the highest marginal individual income tax rate was 91% and the highest marginal corporate tax was 52%, President John F. Kennedy announced his plan to introduce permanent, across-the-board tax cuts for both individuals and corporations. Kennedy argued that both “logic and equity” demanded tax [...]
Adjusted for Household Size, Real Income Reached An All-Time High in 2007, +66% Higher Than 1967
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
The Census Bureau just released its annual report that includes real, median household income for 2007 ($50,233). From the report:
Between 2006 and 2007, real median household income rose 1.3%, from $49,568 to $50,233 (see top chart above)—a level not statistically different from the 1999 prerecession income peak ($50,641 in 1999 [...]
Movin’ Up and Down The Income Quintiles in 2 Yrs.
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
From the Census Bureau: Of households in the lowest income quintile in 2001, 28.6% were in a higher quintile in 2003; of those originally in the highest income quintile, 32.1% were in a lower quintile 2 years later.
In other words, in just a two-year period, 2 out of every 7 households in [...]
Calling a European recession
Submitted by Econbrowser
“Is the first zone wide recession in the short history of the eurozone about to be registered?” asks Edward Hugh. I was curious to apply the algorithm for calculating my U.S. recession indicator index to a euro area GDP measure to get an answer.
We don’t have a long enough time series on the [...]
