Thanks to Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution for pointing this article from New York Magazine. Most restaurant patrons probably don’t consider all the work that goes into designing a truly effective menu. Apologies for sounding like a rube, but this analysis is brilliant.
4. In The Vicinity
The restaurant’s high-profit dishes tend to cluster near the anchor. Here, it’s more seafood at prices that seem comparatively modest.
I didn’t realize the degree by which my decision making at dinner has been manipulated by business considerations. I do now.
Matt Welch ponders the recent news that Federal employees have surpassed their private sector counterparts in salary and benefits. From the comments: ” …a government manager’s only motivation is to increase the size of his organization.”
This is why I have a problem increasing the size of government for any reason. They have guns and prisons and are incented to increase their power above all. In addition, ambitious public employees drape themselves in the mantle of selflessness and public service which is rarely the truth. I seldom find ambitious private sector employees with such duplicitous motivations.
Calculated Risk estimates the US economy has to grow by 6% in order to reduce unemployment by a mere 2%. Not likely.
“we find a robust negative correlation between
unemployment and attacks against government and allied forces and no
significant relationship between unemployment and the rate of insurgent
attacks that kill civilians”
From: http://ping.fm/6XNvm
“Both of these arguments are comprehensible… But they cannot both be true at the same time. Either the economy is so awash in liquidity that the Federal Reserve cannot do much to boost spending—in which case additional spending by the government won’t generate any substantial rise in interest rates. Or additional government spending will crowd out investment…—in which case the economy is not awash in liquidity, and quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve could do a lot right now to boost spending and employment.”
From: http://ping.fm/kE8it
Uncanny how spot-on Schiff was. Ben Stein recommending Merrill as ‘cheap’. Oh, Ben… How’s that stock working for you now?
“I think this is a brilliant quote because it encapsulates the situation perfectly. (For readers who are not basketball fans, this was a sports reference to basketball players who stay close to their basket to score easy lay-up points). Dimon, a classic keep-your-powder-dry-when-everyone-else-is-losing-his-head conservative banker, is also an opportunist. In a move straight out of Warren Buffett’s game plan, he was looking for some easy lay-ups when the chips were down and everyone was panicked. That’s how he got bear Stearns and it’s also how JPMorgan Chase got Washington Mutual.”
From: http://ping.fm/g9ryO
“Readers may know that William Black, who teaches economics and law at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, has been a vociferous critic of US policy on the financial crisis. In this lecture, he not only revisits one of his favorite topics, fraud, but also examines a wealth transfer from the middle classes to the banksters.”
From: http://ping.fm/yozs8
Music industry executives – clueless or masters of the rope-a-dope strategy?
From: http://ping.fm/2fn0T
There’s no recovery until, according to Calculated Risk, residential investment picks up.
From: http://ping.fm/QZmVV
