» Posted by Martin Weil on November 25, 2009

This according to the newest data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Chart courtesy of the NYT's Economix blog.

» Posted by Martin Weil on August 11, 2009

photo, NY Times

"Shanghai and Beijing are becoming new lands of opportunity for recent American college graduates who face unemployment nearing double digits at home." So says an article in Monday's NY Times.

» Posted by Martin Weil on July 09, 2009

Then Wall Street Prison Consultants (I am not making this up) is the place you need to call.

A sample: "Fedtime 101, is a unique SURVIVAL PROGRAM on Federal Prison life, that I designed and put together while serving time behind prison walls. Fedtime 101 provides, direct one-on-one counseling and guidance,to ensure you have a complete understanding of the issues lying ahead of you and your family.... My program's extensive, based on reality, and the personal hands on experience of surviving for ten years at all security levels of the Federal Prison System."

» Posted by Martin Weil on October 23, 2008

Economic theory would hold that this is just rational profit-maximizing behavior since successul football coaches in today's society are probably the largest contributor to a college or university's financial success. So let's not assign the blame to colleges, or those "greedy" coaches.

Image from Economix

» Posted by Martin Weil on May 26, 2008

...an estimated 1% of America's wealth migrates into foreign hands every year.

So writes Pimco's Bill Gross in this June opinion piece. Gross proceeds to call Americans "overweight, poorly educated, overindulged, and imbued with such a sense of self importance" as he despairs of our declining global competitiveness and the public's seeming fixation on the trivial at the expense of the critical.

» Posted by Martin Weil on April 30, 2008

Police in southern China have discovered a factory manufacturing Free Tibet flags, media reports say. The factory in Guangdong had been completing overseas orders for the flag of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

Reported by Neatorama

» Posted by Martin Weil on April 21, 2008

Some folks celebrate their last home mortgage payment by setting fire to their loan agreement. Lately, some people behind on their mortgages are simply setting fire to their homes.

From this article in the LA Times (registration required)

» Posted by Martin Weil on April 01, 2008

(Since it is the political season)

Princeton political scientist Larry Bartels' soon-to-be-released new book, analyzes the difference that the President's party affiliation makes to the distribution of income during the four years of the president's term.

When a Republican president is in power, people at the top of the income distribution experience much larger real income gains than those at the bottom... when a Democrat is in power: those who benefit the most are the lower income groups....Strikingly, compared to Republicans, Democratic presidents generate higher income gains for all income groups.

So writes Harvard economics professor Dani Rodrik

» Posted by Martin Weil on March 20, 2008

The short answer: low wages in China.

That at least according to economist Tyler Cowen, who says that the falling cost of most consumer items and their increasingly short product life cycle mean that stolen goods are not worth what they once were.

» Posted by Martin Weil on December 26, 2007

Blogger Eric de Place calculates that, for a typical driver, switching from an SUV that gets 16 MPG to a car that gets just 23 MPG (difference 7 MPG) will save twice as much gas each year as if a compact car driver getting 32 MPG switches to a Prius getting 47 MPG (difference 15 MPG). This counterintuitive result is a function of the curve shown below. Note that the steepest part of the curve (where the most gas is saved) occurs in the 5-20 MPG range.

Moral of the story: Environmentalists should forget hybrids and put their efforts on getting people out of their gas-guzzling SUV's and into Camrys, or even Cadillacs.