Archive for March, 2009
« Previous EntriesThe Fatal Conceit
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
According to the government, Rick Wagoner was forced to resign because of poor performance. That’s embarrassing . . . You run an organization that loses billions of dollars and then get fired by a guy who heads up an organization that loses trillions of dollars.
~Jay Leno
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March: Best Monthly Stock Gain Since Oct. 2002
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
The S&P 500 Index rose 8.5% in March, the best monthly gain since October 2002 (see chart above).
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A Table and a Picture from the OECD Economic Outlook
Submitted by Econbrowser
According to the OECD, America’s economy will be shrinking throughout 2009. The rest-of-the-world won’t be doing so hot either.
The OECD released its semi-annual Economic Outlook today. Here are the forecasts.
Table from OECD, March 31, 2009.And here is a graph comparing aggregate OECD and non-OECD growth, quarter by quarter, against estimated growth of potential [...]
Consumers Gain from Taxi Deregulation in Ireland: More Taxis, Lower Prices, Shorter Wait Times
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
From the article “Regulatory Capture, Property Rights and Taxi Deregulation: A Case Study,” by Sean D. Barrett in the Institute of Economic Affairs:
Pressure from incumbent taxi license holders, including brought a government decision in 1978 to limit the number of licences by statutory instrument. This led to the licenses acquiring a scarcity, [...]
iPhone App: 5-Minute Clinical Consult for MDs
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Unbound Medicine has released its 5 Minute Clinical Consult application for the iPhone platform. The application is designed to quickly help physicians find relevant information at the point of care regarding “diagnosis, treatment, medications, follow-up, ICD-9 coding and patient teaching.”
The 5-Minute Clinical Consult delivers fast, to-the-point guidance on the diagnosis and treatment [...]
Cartoon of the Day: Detroit News’ Henry Payne
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
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The Real Price of New Cars Has Fallen
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
In all of the discussions on the U.S. auto industry, GM, Ford, and Chrysler, etc., we shouldn’t forget about the biggest beneficiaries of the intense global competition in the car industry: American consumers. The top chart above shows the CPI for new cars, which increased annually between 1973 and 1996 at the [...]
Credit Crunch: Is it Real?
Submitted by Businomics Blog
In a recent post I compared bank loans to businesses in this recession with the pattern in past recessions. I couldn’t see anything that resembled a credit crunch. I cautioned readers that those statistics did not include non-bank credit. So I dug up the data on all credit to non-financial businesses, which [...]
WHAT ARE MONEY MANAGERS THINKING?
Submitted by The Capital Spectator
What are professional money managers thinking these days? A new poll by Russell Investments offers an answer. Among the highlights:
• 67% of managers are now bullish on corporate bonds
• 61% are bullish on high-yield bonds
In both cases, the percentages are a bit higher compared with the previous poll from last December. [...]
Ph.D. Admissions Shrinking
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
If ever there was a year that colleges were anxious about enrolling new and continuing students, this is it. Whether dependent on tuition revenue or state appropriations formulas, colleges are doing everything they can think of in this economically challenging year to attract students — and the dollars that follow them.
But there [...]
Cartoon of the Day: IBD’s Michael Ramirez
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
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Dirt Poor in Cuba, The “Workers’ Paradise”
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
In Cuba, ration coupons allow for only about half of the needed calories, and agriculture is so inefficient that Cubans spend about 50 to 70% of their gross income supplementing the food available through the state system (MP: Compared to about 6% for Americans).
More than a quarter of the Cuban work [...]
Markets in Everything: Spray Painting Lawns
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
PERRIS, Calif. (AP) — A town is going green to combat foreclosure blight: A contractor has been hired to spray-paint lawn bald spots. Perris spokesman Joe Vargo said contractor Dave Milligan uses an environmentally friendly dye that lasts up to six months and is harmless to people and pets. The city hopes [...]
Cars in Cuba: Years of Paperwork, An Official Letter, Verification of Buyer’s Ideological Purity
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Buying a car in Cuba is like one of those Indiana Jones adventures: you can end up with a heart attack, or a ten-year wait. For a long time it was only possible to get a car as a part of the distribution based on merit. An outstanding worker, with thousands of [...]
Privilege of Cartel Membership:Above-Mkt. Returns
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Market Watch – Medallion Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: TAXI), a specialty finance company with a leading position servicing the taxicab industry announced that earnings, or net increase in net assets resulting from operations was $2,832,000 or $0.16 per diluted common share in the 2008 fourth quarter.
Andrew Murstein, President of Medallion Financial stated, “We [...]
Supply and Demand in Action, Part III
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
4-Block World.
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The Fed’s new balance sheet
Submitted by Econbrowser
My previous post reviewed the profound changes in the balance sheet of the U.S. Federal Reserve over the last 18 months. Here I comment on some of the concerns that the new Fed balance sheet raises for the conduct of monetary policy.
I would suggest first that the new Fed balance sheet represents a [...]
Free Trade and Imaginary Lines Called Borders
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Don Boudreaux, Cafe Hayek:
Practically speaking, there is free trade throughout the United States. My family and I (in VA) routinely buy wine from California and Oregon, oranges and lemons from Florida, computer software from Washington state, maple syrup from Vermont, peaches from South Carolina, television newscasts from New York and Atlanta, [...]
KFC Wants to Help Patch the Nation’s Potholes
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
But the city of Chicago says “No thanks.”
Chicago Tribune — The fast-food chain has sent off a letter to the nation’s mayors, offering to patch their potholes for free. The company will leave behind a stenciled brand on the patch informing people the road has been “Re-Freshed by KFC.”
“In honor of our [...]
Stimulus Could Favor White Males
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
WASHINGTON – Nonunion contractors and minority and female workers fear that they could lose out on major construction projects funded by the economic stimulus package because President Barack Obama has issued a directive on contracting that favors union labor. An executive order that Obama signed “encourages executive agencies to consider requiring the [...]
Supply and Demand in Action, Part II
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Source.
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Supply and Demand in Action, Part I
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Click to enlarge.
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The 50 Best (Worst?) Pun Store Names
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
List.
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THE NATURE OF THE BEAST
Submitted by The Capital Spectator
Jeffrey Lacker, president of the Richmond Fed, is a voting member of the FOMC and a card-carrying hawk on matters of inflation. So when he warns that monetary policy faces new hurdles, our ears perk up. As we’ve been discussing, minting money is easy.;taking it away is something else. The hazards [...]
Money creation and the Fed
Submitted by Econbrowser
A lot of people have seen this picture of the recent behavior of the monetary base and wondered what it means.
To understand the explosion in the monetary base since September, let’s begin with a little background. The Federal Reserve has the ability to purchase assets or make loans with funds (money) that are [...]
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