Archive for September, 2009
« Previous EntriesThe Economics of Technology and Labor: Time to Rethink Your IT Program
Submitted by Businomics Blog
I was sitting with a consulting client evaluating their readiness for the economic recovery, using my basic economic consulting process. The client mentioned that he had considered a project to automate one of their manual processes, but it didn’t seem to pencil out. It turns out that was three years ago.
Today I [...]
Guest Contribution: Lessons from the 1970s for Fed Policy Today
Submitted by Econbrowser
By David Papell
Today, we’re fortunate to have David Papell, Professor of Economics at University of Houston, as a guest contributor.
The Federal Open Market Committee voted last Wednesday to keep the federal funds target rate at a record low of between zero and 0.25 percent. If it was not constrained by the zero lower [...]
STRATEGIC PERSPECTIVE IS (STILL) A RADICAL IDEA
Submitted by The Capital Spectator
Investment advice runs the gamut in the known universe of finance. Some of it’s good, some of it’s less so, but the majority of it is just plain misguided if not detrimental to the long-term interests of investors. It’s an old story, but it’s also a perennial, and therein lies the [...]
People Voting With Their One-Way U-Haul Rentals
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Fortunately, the American people and businesses can vote with their feet, and with their one-way truck rentals, and that is apparently what the U-Haul data in the chart above show they are doing—moving away from places like Detroit and Providence with high unemployment and business-unfriendly environments, to cities like Fairfax, Fargo, and [...]
Real Estate Recovery: Phoenix, Miami, Las Vegas
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
PHOENIX — A total of 8,639 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in the combined Maricopa-Pinal counties metropolitan area in August, down 15.5% from July but up 20.2% from a year ago. Total home sales have increased on a year-over-year basis for eight consecutive months. Last month’s sales were at [...]
14th Straight Month of Pending Sales Increases for the Minneapolis Area Housing Market
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors — Home prices continue to show signs of strengthening in August. From March 2009 through August 2009 the median sales price has grown from $154,125 to $175,000. During the same period last year prices were flat. Prices are stablizing due to strong buyer demand—especially in the lower [...]
Single Most Important and Revolutionary Factor for Economic Development and Empowerment?
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Over the last several years, what has been the single most important and revolutionary factor for the economic empowerment of the world’s poorest people?
Hint: It’s not foreign aid, the World Bank, or the International Monetary Fund.
Hint: It has compensated for inadequate infrastructure such as bad roads and slow postal services, it [...]
U.S. Home Prices Increase for the Third Month in a Row For the First Time Since Spring 2006
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. single-family home prices in July rose from the previous month, surpassing forecasts and bolstering the case for housing market stability after a three-year plunge, Standard & Poor’s said on Tuesday. The S&P/Case-Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas rose 1.6% in July from June, more than triple [...]
Markets in Everything: Carbon Offset Airport Kiosks
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Three new kiosks with touch screens let travelers passing through SFO airport punch in an itinerary and purchase the appropriate carbon offset—calculated on the spot. These Climate Passport kiosks, the first in a U.S. airport, debuted yesterday and are located after security checkpoints near the entrances to Terminal 3 and international terminals [...]
Questions for Protectionists: Is The National Zoo with Foreign Animals Unpatriotic & Un-American?
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Is China Guilty of “Panda Dumping”?
I now live several blocks from the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C. and have visited there twice in the last week to see the exotic, foreign, imported pandas, hippo, zebras, the 8-month old baby gorilla, tigers, lions, etc.
Based on an earlier CD post, here are some [...]
Libertarian Purity Test
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Take Bryan Caplan’s Libertarian Purity Test here.
HT: Mike Munger
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There’s Hope: Even Michigan Economy Rebounds!
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
DALLAS/September 28, 2009 – Comerica Bank’s Michigan Economic Activity Index improved five points in August to 78, the highest reading since December 2008. Compared to its recent May low, the Index is now up eight points, or 11%. Year-to-date, the Index averages 73, down 14 points from the 2008 average.
“A surge in [...]
Health Care PSA Smackdown
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Do we need a “Public Health Insurance Option”?
YES. “Save the Insurance Company Executives PSA.”
Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell
Use this link if the video above doesn’t play.
NO. “Save the Celebrities PSA.”
From the No Insurance Club.
Try this link if the video above doesn’t play.
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Chicago Fed Index Increases for 7th Straight Month
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
The three-month moving average, Chicago Fed National Activity Index-MA3 , improved for the seventh consecutive month (see charts above). At –1.09 in August (up from –1.61 in the previous month), the CFNAI-MA3 suggests that growth in national economic activity was below its historical trend.The production-related indicators made a smaller positive contribution of [...]
Cuba’s Farms: From State-Run to Private
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
GOOD NEWS: Faced with the smothering inefficiencies of a state-run economy and unable to feed his people without massive imports of food, Cuban leader Raúl Castro has put his faith in compatriots like Esther Fuentes and his little farm out in the sticks.
If Cuba is searching for its New New Man, [...]
Markets In Everything: Drive-Through Flu Shots
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
LEESBURG, Va. - Doctors and health departments are trying to meet the demand for the seasonal flu vaccination. Nurses in Leesburg Sunday offered a unique way to get the seasonal shot and Virginians turned out in droves. On Sunday, Leesburg residents had the opportunity to get a drive thru flu shot. Mattie [...]
One Reason European Health Care Works: America
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
A 2006 article by Henry G. Grabowski and Y. Richard Wang in the peer-reviewed journal Health Affairs makes plain, the lion’s share of new chemical entities (NCEs)—that is, genuinely new drugs—are invented in the United States. Between 1993 and 2003, the authors found, 437 NCEs were introduced around the world. America was [...]
An Inconvenient Question: Did You Fly to the NYC Premiere of Climate Change Movie “Age of Stupid”?
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
MANILA (9/23/2009) - The much-awaited documentary “Age of Stupid” premiered globally in over 50 countries (including Antarctica) this week, sparking renewed calls for climate change action. The film, directed by British filmmaker and climate change activist Franny Armstrong (”If you’re not fighting climate change or improving the world, you’re wasting your life“), [...]
A SETBACK FOR DURABLE GOODS ORDERS
Submitted by The Capital Spectator
If you’re looking for a measure of the challenge that awaits, new orders for durable goods are a useful place to start.
Durable goods are arguably at the front line of economic activity. Purchasing big-ticket items, like cars and aircraft, take some degree of confidence in the near-term economic outlook as well [...]
Federal Reserve reverse repurchases
Submitted by Econbrowser
Here I offer some thoughts on Bloomberg’s account that the Fed has made inquiries with its dealers about the feasibility of a significant increase in the Fed’s reverse repo operations.
First, a little background. The traditional tool of monetary policy is an open market purchase, in which the Fed purchased U.S. Treasury securities that [...]
Links for 2009-09-25
Submitted by Econbrowser
Tim Duy worries that some FOMC members are overestimating the inflation risk.
Arnold Kling proposes a mackerel theory of value.
The discussion at Cato of monetary policy continues.
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Yes, Income Inequality *IS* Increasing Significantly
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
In the National Football League.
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CA Real Estate Recovery: Home Sales Increase for 14th Straight Month, Median Prices for 6th Month
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
LOS ANGELES (Sept. 25) – Home sales increased 9% in August in California compared with the same period a year ago, while the median price of an existing home declined 16.9%, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS (C.A.R.) reported (see chart above). Closed escrow sales of existing, single-family detached homes in California totaled [...]
Florida Real Estate Market Recovery: 12th Consecutive Monthly Increase in Home Sales
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
ORLANDO, Fla. (Sept. 24, 2009) – Florida’s existing home sales rose in August – marking a full calendar year (12 months) that sales activity increased in the year-to-year comparison, according to the latest housing data released by Florida Realtors. Existing home sales rose 28% last month with a total of 13,850 homes [...]
The Improving Economic Picture: From 25% to 95% Odds Since March for Positive Q3 Real GDP Growth
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Back in early March, as the U.S. and global stock markets were bottoming out and the general economic outlook for the U.S. was pretty uncertain, the odds of third quarter U.S. real GDP growth being positive was only about 25%, according to futures trading on Intrade. As the economic picture has [...]
