Starcraft II is the game of choice for the Silicon Valley engineers building companies like Facebook, Asana, and Quora.
The game is basically a 21st century version of Chess. Except that instead of starting with your Rooks, Bishops, and... (more)
Parents take heed, if you think your kids are wasting their time playing video games, you're the one who is wasting your time by NOT playing video games! :) - Chris, InfoLib
One of the more interesting recent stories of government absurdity is New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg's decree that starting in 2013, the Nissan NV200 minivan will become the official taxi of the city. Over the next five years, all other models will be phased out.
In addition to illustrating the corrupting effects of political power, the episode underscores the economic problems of government ownership of road... (more)
Los Angeles (May 3, 2011) — As the federal government rapidly approaches the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling, 96 percent of Americans say it is important to reduce the national debt, according to a new Reason Foundation-Rupe poll. Of those surveyed, 69 percent believe reducing the national debt is "very important."
The WSJ reports that used car prices are soaring. “The price of used cars is just crazy right now,” said Adam Lee, chairman of Maine dealer Lee Auto Malls. His dealership is paying hefty sums for cars it normally might not purchase to have a full inventory. “It can be a piece of junk--cars we used to pay $2,000 or $2,500 for, we are now paying $5,200 to $5,500,” Mr. Lee said.
The WSJ story meanders around for a cause but never mentions Cash for Clunkers... (more)
I have worked on Wall Street my entire life, and one thing I've learned is that large institutional investors, like pension funds and endowments, rarely veer from the herd. They manage too much of other people's money to stick their necks out alone – if their investments go bad, at least they can point to everyone else who fared just as poorly.
For this reason, these funds are often lagging in their perception of crucial market changes – changes such as... (more)
Presented by Jeff Tucker at "The Miracles of Capitalism," a high school seminar hosted at the Mises Institute and sponsored by Dr. Don W. Printz on 29 April 2011.
Swiss investor Marc Faber has just released his latest issue of the Gloom, Boom, and Doom Report where he discussed his outlook for the stock market, gold, emerging markets, and other financial topics. Here are a few highlights from the report:
1. Equity Markets–The markets may be giddy about stocks hitting new highs, but contrarian investor Marc Faber is having nothing of this. He is concerned that stocks will fall sharply in May and that the recent breakou... (more)
Looks like his predictions already manifested! - Chris, InfoLib
Probably the only piece of economic news that matters today, and possibly all year, no scratch that, since the "End Of The Recession" (NBER TM) - according to Reuters: "The April 20-23 Gallup survey of 1,013 U.S. adults found that only 27 percent said the economy is growing. 29 percent said the economy is in a depression and 26 percent said it is in a recession, with another 16 percent saying it is "slowing down," Gallup said." That means that more Americans think th... (more)
"Fight of the Century" is the new economics hip-hop music video by John Papola and Russ Roberts at http://EconStories.tv.
According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Great Recession ended almost two years ago, in the summer of 2009. Yet we're all uneasy. Job growth has been disappointing. The recovery se... (more)
Amazon all but told South Carolina goodbye Wednesday after the online retailer lost a legislative showdown on a sales tax collection exemption it wants to open a distribution center that would bring 1,249 jobs to the Midlands.
Company officials immediately halted plans to equip and staff the one million-square-foot
Is going to college a worthwhile investment? Is the education that our young people are receiving at our colleges and universities really worth all of the time, money and effort that is required? Decades ago, a college education was quite inexpensive and it was almost an automatic ticket to the middle class. But today all of that has changed. At this point, college education is a big business. There are currently more than 18 million students enrolled at the nearly... (more)
Has the U.S. housing market reached a "bottom" yet? Are home prices going to start recovering? Is the housing crisis going to end at some point? Today there are millions of American families that would like to buy homes but they are not sure what to do. After all, nobody wants to end up like all the suckers that bought at the top of the market and now owe far more on their mortgages then their homes are worth. A lot of people are really afraid to take out home loans... (more)
This clown literally advocates a 25% tariff on all goods from China. All that is is a 25% tax hike on all Americans in order to subsidize some favored American manufacturers. Actually, scratch that, all the companies would do is move to Malaysia or Thailand to get around the stupid tax. - Chris, InfoLib
Jestina Clayton, a college graduate, wife, mother of two and refugee from Sierra Leone's civil war has been braiding hair for most of her life. Now she wants to use her considerable skills to help provide for her family while her husband finishes his education. But the state of Utah says she may not be paid to braid unless she first spends ... (more)
A meme is now circulating that gold is in a bubble and that it's time for the wise investor to sell. To me, that’s a ridiculous notion. Certainly a premature one.
It pays to remain as objective as you can be when analyzing any investment. People have a tendency to fall in love with an asset class, usually because it’s treated them so well. We saw that happen, most recently, with Internet stocks in the late ’90s and houses up to 2007. Investment bub... (more)
