Airline tickets. The price of ’em. Actually, the COST of flying.
Maddening. Right?
Kinda, but only because they’re changing how they charge.
He’s back. The NFL adjusts, the Vikings adjust and the Saints will adjust.
But markets?
Yup, them too.
Serious. There seems to be an upside.
California is going broke. And how.
They tax the rich out of their state. They tax the businesses out of their state. They’ll tax anything that moves and now, they’ll tax half of that stuff that doesn’t.
Posted in Politics: National, States Behaving Badly
Tagged California, Illegal Immigrant, Liberal, Politics, Recession, Taxes
Monday I saw that my local McDonald’s was still trying to get someone to fill their manager position. They have had their help wanted sign up for 26+ days. Yesterday I stopped to get lunch for the wifey and saw this:
At some point we have to call this what it really is. Something besides “I can’t find a job”.
The simple fact is that when the government is willing to pay you virtually the same amount of money to stay home rather than work, the reasonable person is going to stay home rather than work.
I have been tracking the whole Brett Favre thing; especially in Vegas and then on Intrade. And while I was there this morning I stopped by the Midterm Senate race page and saw this:
The Number of seats expected to be held by the Republicans that clears 50% has gone up 1 from 47 to 48. The market is clearing at 48 seats!
Excellent news on a Wednesday morning. Almost as good as seeing the chances of Brett Favre playing again at 96%.
Posted in Elections 2010, Fun, Politics: National, Senate
Tagged Brett Favre, Minnesota Vikings, Politics, Senate
I rediscovered The Sports Economist the other day. And was immediately impressed with their post on Brett Favre.
Basically, the Sports Economist was saying that the Vegas odds changed when Favre “announced” his retirement on August 3rd.
On August 2nd, odds showed the Vikings with a 38% (+130) chance of winning the NFC North, with that number dropping to 32%(+175) by the morning of August 4th.
With those reports being largely ignored, the Favre numbers in Vegas were at:
Vikings at +150 as of August 16th.
Now that reports have Favre coming home, we are at:
Minnesota Not Being Shown
It would appear that Vegas doesn’t wanna show the odds of a Minnesota NFC North Championship or ANY NFC North chance at all until Favre announces Wednesday!
Go #4.
Just as I uploaded my most recent post to Twitter, I saw that Cato referenced a post by Jeffrey Miron, an Economics Professor at Harvard.
He basically says the same thing I do:
On several occassions over the past few weeks, I have expressed the view on TV/radio that unemployment insurance is one factor that keeps unemployment elevated.
Not that a Sr. Fellow at the Cato Institute needs any backup, he brings it with an article from the NY Times:
Struggling to keep its budget under control after the financial crisis, the government in June cut into its benefits system, the world’s most generous, by limiting unemployment payments to two years instead of four. Having found that recipients either get work right away or take any job as their checks run out, officials are also redoubling longstanding efforts to move Danes more quickly out of the safety net.
It would appear that this long hair isn’t stewing alone in his own juices.
Posted in Economics, Politics: International, Politics: National, Welfare
Tagged Recession, Unemployment
So, grabbin lunch yesterday. Stopped into the local McDonald’s for a quick [and icky] lunch.
They have a really cool series of Happy Meal toys for boys right now; Marvel Super Heros. So, I picked one up for Tyler:
Cool huh? Guess what else I saw?
I suppose there’s nothing illegal about this. And maybe it’s even natural that someone who’s spent a umber of years building experience and contacts would make a career move that makes sense.
In fact, it happens in Corporate America all the time.
But still, this rubs me wrong:
Raleigh, N.C. — Tom Shaheen, who has headed the North Carolina Education Lottery since its inception four years ago, has resigned his post to take a job with a company involved in the sale of lottery tickets through ATMs.
Lottery officials said in a statement Monday that Shaheen will be vice president of business development for Linq3, which has developed solutions for the sale of lottery tickets through automated teller machines and other point-of-sale terminals for distribution both in the U.S. and abroad. His last day at the lottery will be Sept. 17.
Good work if ya can get it!
Posted in Lobby/PAC, Politics: North Carolina
Tagged Abuse of Power, Lottery, North Carolina, North Carolina Politics, Politics
Recent analysis of changes to Hong Kong are getting press in the Economist. A new law is going to be passed setting a wage floor in Hong Kong. For years, the city has managed to grow, thrive even, without the common law known as Minimum Wage.
The legislation is set to impose a minimum wage between $3.00 and $4.00 American. Not much by our standards, but then again, perhaps our standards are a bit exaggerated.
Posted in Economics, Liberty, Lobby/PAC, Politics: International
Tagged China, Hong Kong, Leftist, Minimum Wage, Politics, Unintended Consequences, Unions