All Entries Tagged With: "complete-story"
It’s Too Bad if You Don’t Think Federal Workers Deserve Twice Your Pay
Because they’re getting it anyway. According to an analysis by Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute, the average federal civilian earned about $120,000 in 2008 pay and benefits, as opposed to the $60,000 earned by a private sector worker. It’s a huge and growing difference. It really began to widen in the year 2000, when it was “only” about a $30,000 gap between the two types of earners. Since that same year pay and benefits are up only 28 percent for private workers versus a staggering 58 percent for the federal crew. They’ve just been improving so much in handling government bureaucracy… in case you couldn’t tell
Wynn Resorts: ‘Short’ Follow-Up
Andrew Horowitz submits: If you have been reading along, you would have scooped up two short calls that we made on Wynn Resorts ( WYNN ). The most recent was last week when we identified conditions that we found to be troubling for the casino operator. (Click here .) To top it off, Steve Wynn said in Wednesday’s conference call : “ … it will not be expanding in the U.S. until management understands what is going on in the country.
Supply and Demand in Action: The U-Haul Indicator
Mark J. Perry submits: I’ve posted numerous times ( here , here , here and here ) about how one-way U-Haul truck rental rates reflect supply and demand in action and measure household migration patterns, resulting in high one-way rental prices that reflect high outbound demand (and low inbound demand), and low prices that reflect low outbound demand (and high inbound demand). Now MSN reports on this phenomenon in an article ” Where Jobs Are: The U-Haul Indicator “: One measure of a region’s economic health is the relative price of moving-truck rentals. It has been said that people vote with their feet. They pick up and go to where the jobs and opportunities are.
What the Solar Industry Wants in a Climate Change Bill
Greentech Media submits: By Ucilia Wang ANAHEIM, Calif. — The national mandate to use solar electricity combined with policies to support new electric grid transmission projects and a “green bank” to finance renewable energy projects are on the wish list of the solar industry for the climate change legislation, said Rhone Resch, executive director of the Solar Energy Industries Association. Complete Story
6 Data Points that Suggest Air Travel Looks Headed for Comeback
Mark J. Perry submits: click to enlarge 1. AIRPORTS COUNCIL INTERNATIONAL — World passenger traffic posted a positive growth rate in August for the first time since June 2008. Passenger demand finally registered a modest positive growth rate in August 2009 with the world airports reporting a 0.1 percent increase compared to August 2008
Were Fannie and Freddie the Real Enablers of the Housing Bubble?
Brad DeLong submits: Via Mark Thoma: Economist’s View: Rise and Fall of Non-Agency Securitization : Complete Story
World Fuel Services’ Positive Outlook
Steve Alexander submits: World Fuel Services ( INT ) is a provider of, you guessed it, fuel and related services to the marine, aviation, and land vehicle market, which is how the company is segmented. The marine segment (55% of sales, 51% of profits) and aviation (33%, 40%) provide similar services at seaports and airports. International container and tanker fleets in marine, and airlines and cargo carrigers in aviation both contract with World Fuel to provide the convenience of a single source supplier, procurement outsourcing, quality control, price hedging, logistics, offering credit, and providing ancillary services like flight plans and weather reports.
Countdown to Armageddon: The Fed Bubbles Itself Up
ForexTraders submits: A few days ago the Treasury auctioned about $7 billion in five-year inflation-indexed securities (TIPS), and demand was robust. The bid-to-cover ratio according to Bloomberg was 3.10, the highest since October 1997, signaling that investor appetite for government paper is far from being exhausted. Indeed, since TIPS ensure against inflation, they are probably even better than gold as a hedge against future volatility at this stage. If you don’t believe that the government is going to supply the dollar massively in excess of demand in order to meet its future obligations, and are confident that the exchange rate risk is manageable, TIPS provide a credible opportunity to hedge against volatility and uncertainty in the markets. Meanwhile, even as TIPS meet robust demand, the ten-year government note fell, in spite of the somewhat gloomy outlook for the stock market. As it is prone to happen, every once a while, sellers like to dump U.S. assets in bulk, including, bonds, stocks, and currency, in response to the occasional fear that a resurgence of the crisis is around the corner.
A Jobless Recovery? Not This Time
The Good News Economist submits: Early this week a survey release by the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) provided new evidence that the U.S. recovery is solidly under way and will be sustained well into 2010. The best news of the survey is that now a majority of companies surveyed are planning to boost their payrolls this year and next. For the first time in over a year, the percentage of businesses expecting to hire workers over the next half year exceeds the share that project more layoffs. Complete Story
Index IQ Launches Two Inflation Hedge ETFs
Ron Rowland submits: On Tuesday IndexIQ announced (pdf)the introduction of two new ETFs designed to protect investors from inflation: IQ CPI Inflation Hedged ETF ( CPI ) and IQ ARB Global Resources ETF ( GRES ). The IQ CPI Inflation Hedged ETF ( CPI ) seeks to hedge against changes in the U.S. inflation rate by providing a “real return,” or a return above the rate of inflation as measured by changes in the Consumer Price Index. Complete Story
-
- FREE SEO Training (CSEM Certification)
- FREE Edition
- Keyword Suggestions
- Optimization Advice
- Search Engine Submission
- Ranking Check
- Link Popularity Analysis
- PPC Campaigns Manager (NEW)
