Saturday, January 11, 2014

Made you look. Made another chart showing the change in the number of people claiming disability benefits. Now, this one REALLY perplexes me...

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This is a follow up to my last post showing the change in Social Security claims by "Retired Persons" from 2005 to 2013 and how it...

Looky here at the chart I made. Might help in understanding the role of retirements in the changing nature of the US labor force. Must know the problem before we can address it...

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One of the major contributors to the declining labor force participation rate in the US is the aging of the Baby Boom Generation. Using th...
Friday, January 10, 2014

Are people exiting the Labor Force because they are giving up looking for work or because they are retiring?

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One of the variables cited as the reason participation in the labor force has been contracting is "Demographic".  Specifically, ba...

Your first look at the latest JOBS REPORT and where the jobs were created (or not). This was NOT a good month for employment!

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The latest jobs report for December 2013 is out and it is not good by any measure.  My very informal survey of various economics blogs (Left...
Wednesday, January 8, 2014

What motivates you more to do something that produces a predetermined desired outcome---The threat of losing $10 or the enjoyment of gaining $10? See here why the answer is not so easy...

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IF the private or public sector is going to design policies that will elicit a specific response from consumers (or citizens) then sometimes...
Tuesday, January 7, 2014

The US has the SAME number of manufacturing jobs as it had in 1960. Why don't they mean as much as they did back then?

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Here is a graph from NPR that shows, over time, the number of jobs classified as either manufacturing and service. A few observations: (...

In 10 short years the US has gone from being #1 in college attainment (age 24 to 34) to 14th compared to the rest of the developed world. What happened? See the numbers here!

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Below are historical data on the percentage of the population of select developed countries that have attained at least a bachelors degree. ...
Friday, January 3, 2014

Is a new house about to become more expensive? Plywood producers seeking an Import Tariff on plywood from China. Let's go to the graphs and examine this!

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Plywood manufacturers in the US petitioned the Government to investigate claims that Chinese producers of plywood were "dumping" ...
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Thursday, January 2, 2014

Makin' Bacon in 2014 may be a little more expensive.These little piggies, unfortunately, are not going to make it to market...

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Makin' Bacon is likely to cost a bit more this year. All is not well down on the farm.  Here is a short article about it. Read it and th...
Tuesday, December 31, 2013

What do the historical Demand for Beef and my Junior Year (the first time) in High School have in common? Both dropped like a rock but one has recovered. Guess which one?

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Well, I dropped out of school (for a time) and the bottom dropped out of the market for beef. Neither of us has recovered fully, but one has...
Monday, December 30, 2013

Since 2007 GDP has increased by $800B and the number of total jobs has decreased by 2 million. How can that happen and "Where is the Money??""

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The graph below is from HERE . The percentage change in Real GDP from the 4th quarter of 2007 (when recession began) to the 3rd quarter of...
Saturday, December 28, 2013

Me, Eddie Murphy and Trading Places...We all have something in common. See here what that is...

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I was watching " Trading Places" the other night, for the 1,000th time, and saw something I have never seen before. In the scene ...
Thursday, December 26, 2013

"The Post Office is Dead. Long Live the Post Office". The price of a stamp is increasing in January. Send an e-mail, text or instant message to tell all your friends! Oh, wait...

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On Christmas Eve, the governing board of the US Postal System approved an increase in the price of a first class stamp. Postal Service Rai...
Monday, December 23, 2013

Used car mileage and pricing. What is so magic about the 10,000 mile mark when it comes to the value of a used car? I need help on this one...

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We behave in strange ways as consumers when it comes to numbers.  The graph below is from a study on the sale of used cars  (HT: Priceonomi...
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Saturday, December 21, 2013

If you lose your job you can apply for unemployment compensation. What are the requirements? You might be surprised.

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When teaching basic macroeconomics in high school (AP or "regular") one of the topics that seems to generate the most student quer...
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