November 29, 2012
The Economic Case Against Winning a $500 Million Lottery (Seriously.) It’s all about the psychological power of adaptation and relativity with money. Adaptation: At first, the thrill of becoming millions of dollars richer is, well thrilling, but after a while, the thrill wears off. Relativity: Winning the lottery creates an indelible memory, a comparison point, that makes typical life events seem disappointing and boring. Money can buy happiness, if you know how to spend it, but the incidence of winning the lottery does not, on its own, buy much happiness at all. In the long-term, it can be a net cost to life satisfaction. Read more. [Image: Reuters]

The Economic Case Against Winning a $500 Million Lottery (Seriously.)

It’s all about the psychological power of adaptation and relativity with money. Adaptation: At first, the thrill of becoming millions of dollars richer is, well thrilling, but after a while, the thrill wears off. Relativity: Winning the lottery creates an indelible memory, a comparison point, that makes typical life events seem disappointing and boring. Money can buy happiness, if you know how to spend it, but the incidence of winning the lottery does not, on its own, buy much happiness at all. In the long-term, it can be a net cost to life satisfaction.

Read more. [Image: Reuters]

11:17am
(Notes: 66)
  
Filed under: Lottery Economics Business Happiness 
November 16, 2012
On eBay, the Starting Bid for a Single Twinkie Is Now $5,000

On eBay, the Starting Bid for a Single Twinkie Is Now $5,000

1:13pm
(Notes: 373)
  
Filed under: Twinkie Business 
November 13, 2012
Zara’s Big Idea: What the World’s Top Fashion Retailer Tells Us About Innovation Zara stores cozy up to the most famous brands in the world to sing their luxury ambitions even as they profit off a brilliant, cheap, short supply chain that delivers similar fashion at a much lower price. Supply chains sounds boring. But they’re the secret to Zara’s success. Rather than ship skirts and dresses from Chinese plants where they arrive in-store after the style has peaked, Inditex (the parent company) makes the bulk of its clothes in Spain and Morocco. A hemline suggestion goes from a customer’s lips to a sales rack at record speed. The company, now the largest fashion retailer on earth, has grown overall sales by about 50% in five years to $17.5 billion. Its employees have gone from 80,000 to 110,000 in that time, despite being headquartered in a depressed Spanish economy, and selling predominantly to a very sick European continent. Read more. [Image: Reuters]

Zara’s Big Idea: What the World’s Top Fashion Retailer Tells Us About Innovation

Zara stores cozy up to the most famous brands in the world to sing their luxury ambitions even as they profit off a brilliant, cheap, short supply chain that delivers similar fashion at a much lower price.

Supply chains sounds boring. But they’re the secret to Zara’s success. Rather than ship skirts and dresses from Chinese plants where they arrive in-store after the style has peaked, Inditex (the parent company) makes the bulk of its clothes in Spain and Morocco. A hemline suggestion goes from a customer’s lips to a sales rack at record speed. The company, now the largest fashion retailer on earth, has grown overall sales by about 50% in five years to $17.5 billion. Its employees have gone from 80,000 to 110,000 in that time, despite being headquartered in a depressed Spanish economy, and selling predominantly to a very sick European continent.

Read more. [Image: Reuters]

11:16am
(Notes: 125)
  
Filed under: Fashion Retail Zara Europe Asia Business 
November 6, 2012
The Word That Gets Women Negotiating Their Salaries: ‘Negotiate’ Women are more likely to negotiate when an employer explicitly says that wages are negotiable. Men, on the other hand, are more likely to negotiate when the employer does not directly state that they can negotiate. Read more. [Image: AP]

The Word That Gets Women Negotiating Their Salaries: ‘Negotiate’

Women are more likely to negotiate when an employer explicitly says that wages are negotiable. Men, on the other hand, are more likely to negotiate when the employer does not directly state that they can negotiate.

Read more. [Image: AP]

11:20am
(Notes: 46)
  
Filed under: Women Gender gap Work-life balance Economics Business Employment 
October 26, 2012
Prisoners of Cable When you turn on your television, there is a 95 percent chance that the channel you tune in to will be owned by one of just seven media companies, such as News Corp (which owns Fox News Channel) or Viacom (which owns Comedy Central). The Big Seven use their oligopolistic power to drive a hard bargain. Cable providers that want to run Viacom’s popular networks, like Comedy Central, must also agree to buy its less popular channels, like MTV2. After dealing with all seven media companies, the cable providers are left with something millions of households will recognize: a bloated offering of channels at an arrestingly high price. The bundle isn’t something Comcast or DirecTV invented to make their customers hate them. It’s something that the largest media companies demand, in take-it-or-leave-it fashion. Read more. [Image: Kevin Van Aelst]

Prisoners of Cable

When you turn on your television, there is a 95 percent chance that the channel you tune in to will be owned by one of just seven media companies, such as News Corp (which owns Fox News Channel) or Viacom (which owns Comedy Central). The Big Seven use their oligopolistic power to drive a hard bargain. Cable providers that want to run Viacom’s popular networks, like Comedy Central, must also agree to buy its less popular channels, like MTV2. After dealing with all seven media companies, the cable providers are left with something millions of households will recognize: a bloated offering of channels at an arrestingly high price. The bundle isn’t something Comcast or DirecTV invented to make their customers hate them. It’s something that the largest media companies demand, in take-it-or-leave-it fashion.

Read more. [Image: Kevin Van Aelst]

9:00am
(Notes: 88)
  
Filed under: Television Business Cable 
October 15, 2012
Where the World’s Millionaires Live—in 1 Graph Today, the United States and Japan are home to about 7% of the world’s population, but more than 50% of the world’s millionaires. Read more.

Where the World’s Millionaires Live—in 1 Graph

Today, the United States and Japan are home to about 7% of the world’s population, but more than 50% of the world’s millionaires.

Read more.

10:26am
(Notes: 583)
  
Filed under: Millionaire Income inequality Chart Graph Economics Business 
September 27, 2012
Facebook Has Officially Popped the Start-Up Bubble Following Facebook’s IPO we declared a bubble burst and now we’re seeing that hit the start-up ecosystem as investor money becomes harder to find. ”The frothy bubble is over,” an analyst told The Wall Street Journal’s Pui Wing Tam and Amir Efrati. And that defrothing has happened in large part because of Facebook’s performance over the last three months. It’s not just the social network’s stock that has failed to boom in the months following its public offering, fledgling tech companies are now having a hard time raising money, as a result. Rather than just fork over the bucks to an up-and-coming app, investors have a new found curiosity in potential profitability and revenue. See: investors want to put money into companies that will bring mega riches. Before, users were enough to feed those fantasies. But Facebook’s wimpy stock has since crushed that dream, making it harder for these other social media start-ups to convince investors to buy in.  Read more. [Image: Reuters]

Facebook Has Officially Popped the Start-Up Bubble

Following Facebook’s IPO we declared a bubble burst and now we’re seeing that hit the start-up ecosystem as investor money becomes harder to find. ”The frothy bubble is over,” an analyst told The Wall Street Journal’s Pui Wing Tam and Amir Efrati. And that defrothing has happened in large part because of Facebook’s performance over the last three months. It’s not just the social network’s stock that has failed to boom in the months following its public offering, fledgling tech companies are now having a hard time raising money, as a result. Rather than just fork over the bucks to an up-and-coming app, investors have a new found curiosity in potential profitability and revenue. See: investors want to put money into companies that will bring mega riches. Before, users were enough to feed those fantasies. But Facebook’s wimpy stock has since crushed that dream, making it harder for these other social media start-ups to convince investors to buy in. 

Read more. [Image: Reuters]

12:24pm
(Notes: 92)
  
Filed under: Technology Facebook Start-up Business 
September 20, 2012
The Next Panic This summer, many government officials and private investors finally seemed to realize that the crisis in the euro zone was not some passing aberration, but rather a result of deep-­seated political, economic, and financial problems that will take many years to resolve. The on-again, off-again euro turmoil has already proved immensely damaging to nearly all Europeans, and its negative impact is now being felt around the world. Most likely there is worse to come—and soon. But the economic disasters of our time—which involve big banks in rich countries, call into question the viability of government debt, and seriously threaten the reach of even the most self-confident nations—will not end with the euro debacle. The euro zone is well down the path to severe crisis, but other industrialized democracies are hot on its heels. Do not let the euro zone’s troubles distract you from the bigger picture: we are all in a mess. Who could be next in line for a gut-wrenching loss of confidence in its growth prospects, its sovereign debt, and its banking system? Think about Japan. Read more. [Image: Koji Sasahara/AP]

The Next Panic

This summer, many government officials and private investors finally seemed to realize that the crisis in the euro zone was not some passing aberration, but rather a result of deep-­seated political, economic, and financial problems that will take many years to resolve. The on-again, off-again euro turmoil has already proved immensely damaging to nearly all Europeans, and its negative impact is now being felt around the world. Most likely there is worse to come—and soon.

But the economic disasters of our time—which involve big banks in rich countries, call into question the viability of government debt, and seriously threaten the reach of even the most self-confident nations—will not end with the euro debacle. The euro zone is well down the path to severe crisis, but other industrialized democracies are hot on its heels. Do not let the euro zone’s troubles distract you from the bigger picture: we are all in a mess.

Who could be next in line for a gut-wrenching loss of confidence in its growth prospects, its sovereign debt, and its banking system? Think about Japan.

Read more. [Image: Koji Sasahara/AP]


3:24pm
(Notes: 50)
  
Filed under: Asia Japan Financial Crisis News Business 
September 19, 2012
Chick-Fil-A Ends Anti-Gay Donations Chick-fil-A’s sandwiches are no longer homophoburgers or free-speech-you-can-eat or whatever the fast food meant during this summer’s culture wars. Fried chicken just went back to being delicious as the chain promised to stop “supporting organizations with political agendas,” which includes anti-gay groups—a move that’s gotten them back into a Chicago’s good graces. We learned the news by way of Chicago’s The Civil Right Agenda (TCRA) an LGBT-rights advocacy group, who report that Chick-fil-A has penned a letter saying, “The WinShape Foundations is now taking a much closer look at the organizations it considers helping, and in that process will remain true to its stated philosophy of not supporting organizations with political agendas.” That letter was addressed to Chicago Alderman Joe Moreno, who along with Boston mayor Thomas Menino, said they would block the chain for its anti-gay views. WinShape is the chain’s not-for-profit charitable arm that had previously donated to groups opposing gay marriage. TCRA adds, “In meetings the company executives clarified that they will no longer give to anti-gay organizations, such as Focus on the Family and the National Organization for Marriage.” Read more. [Image: Reuters]

Chick-Fil-A Ends Anti-Gay Donations

Chick-fil-A’s sandwiches are no longer homophoburgers or free-speech-you-can-eat or whatever the fast food meant during this summer’s culture wars. Fried chicken just went back to being delicious as the chain promised to stop “supporting organizations with political agendas,” which includes anti-gay groups—a move that’s gotten them back into a Chicago’s good graces. We learned the news by way of Chicago’s The Civil Right Agenda (TCRA) an LGBT-rights advocacy group, who report that Chick-fil-A has penned a letter saying, “The WinShape Foundations is now taking a much closer look at the organizations it considers helping, and in that process will remain true to its stated philosophy of not supporting organizations with political agendas.” That letter was addressed to Chicago Alderman Joe Moreno, who along with Boston mayor Thomas Menino, said they would block the chain for its anti-gay views. WinShape is the chain’s not-for-profit charitable arm that had previously donated to groups opposing gay marriage. TCRA adds, “In meetings the company executives clarified that they will no longer give to anti-gay organizations, such as Focus on the Family and the National Organization for Marriage.”

Read more. [Image: Reuters]

3:01pm
(Notes: 165)
  
Filed under: Homophobia Gay chick-fil-A Business Chicago News 
September 13, 2012
It Is Now Cheaper to Own Than Rent In Every Single One of America’s Largest Metros  There’s no doubt that home ownership is far more affordable today than it was before the bubble burst. Even so, it still makes sense to balance the short-run costs of owning versus renting with longer-run expected returns. Four of the five metros above — New York, San Francisco, San Jose, and L.A. — may be expensive because the market is pricing in predicted appreciation over the long-run. The reason prices are lower, and more affordable, in other metros likewise may be because the market expects lower rates of appreciation. There’s also the all-important question of ability to exit — whether and how quickly you can sell if you need to. Read more. [Image: Trulia]

It Is Now Cheaper to Own Than Rent In Every Single One of America’s Largest Metros 

There’s no doubt that home ownership is far more affordable today than it was before the bubble burst. Even so, it still makes sense to balance the short-run costs of owning versus renting with longer-run expected returns. Four of the five metros above — New York, San Francisco, San Jose, and L.A. — may be expensive because the market is pricing in predicted appreciation over the long-run. The reason prices are lower, and more affordable, in other metros likewise may be because the market expects lower rates of appreciation. There’s also the all-important question of ability to exit — whether and how quickly you can sell if you need to.

Read more. [Image: Trulia]

3:19pm
(Notes: 490)
  
Filed under: Rent Housing Economics Market Business 
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