08-25-2016, 10:50 PM
A fisherman in the Philippines is happy as a clam after discovering that a mammoth pearl he stashed away for 10 years under his bed is worth a cool $100 million. The lucky angler, who has not been identified, discovered the 75-pound pearl — believed to be the biggest ever — in the sea off Palawan Island, the Mirror of the U.K. reported.
Fisherman scoops up $100 million pearl — but keeps it under the bed for 10 years - MarketWatch
Earlier this year we highlighted data from Vanguard which showed money parked in funds seeking to meet, rather than beat, a benchmark index had risen to $4 trillion in 2015 from $11 million 40 years ago. Analysts at Bernstein led by Inigo Fraser-Jenkins, however, argue forcefully in a new note to clients that the rise of passive investing presents some seriously dangerous real-world barriers to the efficient allocation of capital in the economy.
Bernstein: Marxism is better than the rise of passive investing - Business Insider
Everyone knows staying home from work when you have the flu helps protect your co-workers from getting sick. Unfortunately, not everyone does it. A new National Bureau of Economic Research paper argues that one reason for that is access to paid sick leave. The paper by Stefan Pichler and Nicolas R. Ziebarth argues that the general flu rate “decreases significantly” when employees have access to paid time off due to illness. It also found that more people play hooky, or stay home when they aren’t actually contagious.
Paid Sick Leave Reduces the Flu Rate ‘Significantly,’ Paper Says - Real Time Economics - WSJ
It’s plain there’s been a slowdown in this growth rate since the early 2000s. That’s part of why people are now taking the stagnationist argument so seriously. But as Vollrath shows -- in the first post with algebra, in the second using plain English -- there’s at least one kind of measurement error that could be dragging this number down. If companies are collecting more economic rent -- meaning, profits from not producing anything -- but statisticians don’t pick up on this, it gives the appearance that businesses are over-consuming capital. That in turn makes it look as if they’re less efficient than they really are. In other words, if companies are sucking up more rents, it makes measured productivity lag behind true technological progress, and gives the appearance of a more severe stagnation than actually exists. So what lets companies suck more rent out of the economy? Lack of competition. If the government grants too much intellectual-property protection, for example, that can help incumbent companies keep out newcomers and preserve fat profit margins at the economy’s expense. If new technology allows companies to create natural monopolies, that can have a similar effect. Lax antitrust regulation, changes in the financial system, overregulation and simple cronyism could all have similar effects. And the fact is, industrial concentration is rising. Market power is increasing.
The Illusion of Lagging Productivity - Bloomberg View
The answer? Absolutely. Our analysis (with professor David Kryscynski of Brigham Young University) of Tesla’s improvement in cost per vehicle shows Tesla is making money on the Model S and will likely make solid profits on the Model 3. Let us explain. One of the tools of any strategist is a scale (or experience) curve. A scale curve calculates how rapidly the cost per unit (in this case, vehicle) decreases with every doubling of unit volume.[1] This analysis is useful for projecting how Tesla’s costs per unit will change going forward based upon its history.
Tesla's Innovations Are Transforming The Auto Industry - Forbes