Let Janet Yellen Tell You How It Really Is

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Janet Yellen is the first woman to hold the position as Chair of the Federal Reserve and is making waves; not only having increased the key interest rate for the first time since 2006, but in her logical, simplistic & informative explanations of the US economy as well. In May of 2015 the Chairwoman addressed the Providence Chamber of Commerce with a predicted outlook for the US economy. She started off talking about how since the recession in 2008, the economy has made significant gains and is regaining its strength, however there was still work to be done regarding the Continue reading Let Janet Yellen Tell You How It Really Is→

Relationship between Oil Prices and Inflation

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Economists in the past 20 years have examined the relationship between oil prices and inflation. The common finding has been one of “limited” or “modest” correlation between these two variables. Michele Cavallo wrote on this topic in the FRBSF Economic Letter and made the observation that in the “1970s and early 1980s, rising oil prices were accompanied by double-digit overall inflation in the U.S. and in several other developed economies.” There were studies conducted using data from 1960-2000 and the results were ambiguous as they showed a strong relationship between oil prices and inflation only before 1981. But since 2000 Continue reading Relationship between Oil Prices and Inflation→

Minor League Baseball Players are being Neglected

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When hundreds of people in a “business” are making below the federal poverty line, then you would think that business would be doing quite poorly. Think again. Major League Baseball (MLB), which has heard the narrative that it is dying due to lack of interest from the younger demographic and the idea that is somewhat of a boring sport, is doing quite well at the moment. According to the Washington Post (WP) article linked first, “baseball has in recent years parlayed renewed popularity into record earnings, leveraging apparel and media demands into $9.5 billion in revenue last year; its 30 franchises averaged $23 Continue reading Minor League Baseball Players are being Neglected→

The State of the Venezuelan Economy (Part 2)

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Two weeks ago, I discussed the state of the Venezuelan economy. Today, I’d like to provide some information about how it got there, and what it might lead to in the future. When Hugo Chavez took power in 1999, he brought in his own ideology that is known as Chavismo. Chavismo is essentially left-wing populism that, like other with other Socialist regimes, is very hostile to private business. Hugo Chavez was president for 14 years, and during that time he implemented a huge number of regulations, taking control of big businesses and centralizing decisions to the government. Small private businesses Continue reading The State of the Venezuelan Economy (Part 2)→

There’s Another Candidate?

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In light of the debate last night between America’s two dominant parties, I wanted to talk about the man who didn’t get to make it to the stage. Yes that’s right, there is still someone out there fighting. The man is Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party’s presidential candidate. The two-term Republican governor of New Mexico, a state that usually votes democratic, claims that most Americans are in fact libertarians but just don’t know it yet. In his interview with Stephen Dubner, Johnson tells listeners his biggest problem, “Right now, 65 percent of Americans don’t even know that I exist”. But Continue reading There’s Another Candidate?→

Advertisers and Social Media: The Endless Struggle

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Facebook is under considerable scrutiny from angry companies that use its platform to advertise to its users. What has them upset is Facebook’s two-year long deliberate embellishment of the reported length their users spend watching ads. By not counting video views of less than three seconds, Facebook’s metric overestimated how long users watched ads on the site. This allowed Facebook to charge firms more to advertise on its platform than it otherwise could have en route to generating $5.2 billion in ad revenue in the first quarter of 2016. Companies are understandably upset because the length viewers watch ads on Continue reading Advertisers and Social Media: The Endless Struggle→

The Benefits in the Long Run of Investing in On-Site Child Care Outweigh the Costs

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As of 2015, America’s workforce was made up of 53.2% men and 46.8% women, and over the past 20 years, this 7-10% gap in genders represented in the workforce has remained fairly consistent. There has been a lot of research done as to why this gap between involvement exists, part of it is due to there being less women in the manual labor, science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields, while another aspect is the ever so present gender pay gap. The causation of the gap in gender in the workforce is multi-dimensional though, often the focus of the conversation is set on identifying the Continue reading The Benefits in the Long Run of Investing in On-Site Child Care Outweigh the Costs→

Argentina Eyes on Macri

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In Buenos Aires all eyes have been on newly elected Argentine president, Mauricio Macri to fix the inflated state of the country’s economy. Macri was elected in December and promised Argentina’s citizens that he would curb inflation. But 8 months later there were reportedly tens of thousands rallying in front of the presidential palace in an “anti-Macri demonstration.” Some labor leaders and citizens are angry at the trajectory of the economy and for good reason. INDEC, the national statistics institute, stated that prices went up by 4.2% in May and The Wall Street Journal reported that unemployment rose to 9.3%. Continue reading Argentina Eyes on Macri→

Nuclear Futures Seem Dim

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The Chinese city of Liangyungang seems to have a bright economic future ahead of it. As a vibrant city on the eastern coast of China with easy access to Taiwan and Korea Liangyungang is a rising center of industry, foreign trade, and tourism. The Chinese government recently released a statement to the residents of Liangyungang that they are planning on constructing a new nuclear power plant within city. Needless to say, after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan the residents of Liangyungang are worried about their own futures. The need for this nuclear power plant is clear, as most of Continue reading Nuclear Futures Seem Dim→

Surprising Statistics Among Voters in Support of Trade Agreements

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The New York Times recently came out with an article outlining some interesting statistics about voters in the United States supporting trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). This is most interesting because both major-party candidates actually oppose the trade agreement that was established by President Obama. In the article, the NYT outlines that the point that Republicans tend to be pro-trade but since the Republican candidate Donald Trump is so anti-trade, the R’s are staunchly against these trade agreements. However, younger voters still strongly support trade agreements such as the TPP and overall voters polled either support trade Continue reading Surprising Statistics Among Voters in Support of Trade Agreements→