Archive for the ‘Economics’ Category
GM and Market Overexuberance?
Yesterday, General Motors had to remind investors that when it emerges from bankruptcy, its common stock will be worthless. Why did they have to do this? Well, apparently GM stock has undergone several days straight of heavy trading, and they cannot really figure out why anyone is buying up equity that will soon be worthless.
According [...]
July 2, 2009
Posted in: Economics 
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Flying and Child Safety Seats
There is a thread currently going on at Flyertalk, my favorite website, about whether or not to mandate child safety seats for small children, who currently travel in their parent’s lap. The reasoning is that in any heavy turbulence, a parent may not be able to hold the child, thus putting that child in danger. [...]
June 30, 2009
Posted in: Economics, Policy No Comments
GM Bailout: Lessons from Amtrak?
In a post on the Daily Beast, Economist James Langenfeld draws a number of lessons between General Motors and Amtrak. You should read his post, but the point is that, like Amtrak, the US government has made a giant commitment to GM with no real signs of profitability anytime soon. He points out that, “It [...]
June 21, 2009
Posted in: Economics, Policy No Comments
Airlines Come Back to Earth
It’s hard to write a post about the current state of air travel without making any crashing references, but that’s probably not entirely appropriate in the wake of the US Airways crash landing on the Hudson. The current state of the four major carriers is just that, however, crashing down, down, down. AMR, the parent [...]
January 22, 2009
Posted in: Economics No Comments
Genetic Resistance and Public Goods
The New York Time ran an article today documenting the fact that this season 99 percent of all flu is genetically resistant to the top anti-viral drug, Tamiflu. Last year this number was about 11 percent. That is a bit scary, but according to the article, this is a down year for the flu, so [...]
January 8, 2009
Posted in: Economics No Comments
