Sometimes you have to wonder what goes on in marketing board rooms…..via New York Daily News and read whole story here.
Author / Hoosier Econ
Government to Save Americans From Christmas Lights
The federal government has decided regulating Christmas lights is a top priority for the citizens of this country. Here is more from The Washington Free Beacon:
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a regulation for Christmas lights on Monday, deeming some holiday decorations a “substantial product hazard.”
The ruling applies to a variety of Christmas decorations, including “stars, wreathes, candles without shades, light sculptures, blow-molded (plastic) figures, and animated figures.”
The CPSC said the regulation is necessary because Christmas lights can be dangerous.
What caused this ruling?
The CPSC said there have been 258 deaths associated with Christmas lights between 1980 and 2013. However, fatal incidents have been on the decline, with an average of less than one fatal (0.9) incident a year since 2008. The number of people who die of alcohol poisoning in California every year is greater than the number of Americans who have been killed by Christmas lights in the past three decades.
City of Terre Haute Broke?
The City of Terre Haute owes a lot of money on bills….a lot of money. Recent digging by the Tribune Star shows a rough financial picture.
As of Friday, the city owed $730,281 in bills that were more than 60 days overdue, according to information compiled by the city controller. Ellis says she monitors cash flow each day to determine which checks can be released for payment.
Some utilities, including Duke and Vectren, have sent disconnect notices to the city in recent months, records show. The city attributes some of those disconnect notices to mistakes. In the case of Vectren, a bill was misplaced, and for Duke Energy, checks for the right amount were sent — one was for $15,000 — but remittance forms were not correct, and so the checks were returned to the city. The matter was cleared up and those bills have been paid, Ellis said.
You can read the rest here via Indiana Economic Digest
Graph: Newspaper Revenue Major Decline
Mark J. Perry of Carpe Diem Blog provides data showing the slow business death of newspaper revenue. Their digital revenue does not add much growth either.
Inflation Alert: Chipotle Restaurant
Chipotle Mexcican Grill recently made headlines by going “GMO Free” on certain ingredients. I believe this announcement was more of a marketing ploy against the news in their recent financial statements. I’m not a big investor of restaurants in this day and age of the Federal Reserve printing money at a high rate and American beef in demand world wide. (Some investment advice, put your money not in the restaurant but with the beef farmer) Chipotle is hiking prices again on its customers. Within a one year time period prices on certain items will have increased 11-13%.
This write up came from TheStreet.com a week before their GMO announcement –
Chipotle stands to receive another jolt to the top line from another round of price increases. The company, which has historically been reluctant to lift prices, confirmed it will hike prices on steak and barbacoa in the third quarter by 4% to 6% in order to compensate for persistent beef inflation.
In the second quarter last year, Chipotle implemented an across-the-board menu price increase of about 7%, as it dealt with beef, dairy and avocado inflation. Same-restaurant sales growth accelerated soon after the menu price increases went into effect — after rising by 13.1% in the first quarter of last year, same-restaurant sales increased averaged 17.7% in the remaining three quarters.
Floyd Mayweather’s Contract Demands: Gummi Bears & DJ’s
If you’re going to book Floyd Mayweather for a fight it takes more then a big payout to get him there. You also have to make sure his visit is up to his liking.
Contract details of his demands were leaked when his Australia fight was cancelled. Here is more from The Sydney Morning Herald. One can only imagine what he demanded and received for his Manny Pacquiao match up.
Mayweather’s rooms in Melbourne and Sydney had to be stocked with Cristal champagne, gummy bears, M&Ms, fresh fruit and juices.
the fighter demanded that both hotels have a barber skilled in cutting African-American hair available 24-hours-a-day. He also wanted a butler, chef, makeup artist and a women’s hairdresser on call.
Mayweather’s 31-person entourage – which included a Miss Universe winner, personal DJs, a mascot, agent, security guards, personal assistant and other assorted hangers-on – required a full floor of rooms.
Later in the evening, the nightclubs Studio 3 and The X-Studio would have to turn over the stage to Mayweather’s personal DJs – DJ Jaybling and DJ Efeezy – for the entire time he was there.
Any breach of these conditions would have been punishable by a steep fine.
Rich People Are Moving To Toronto?
Somewhat surprising article from UK Telegraph but good economic trend they investigated. Read whole article here but below is a snippet.
Toronto is towering above the rest of the world’s luxury property markets, as the only city to record an acceleration in the sales rate of high-end homes from 2013 to 2014.
The Canadian city, well known for its economic stability, experienced a 37pc increase in the sale of luxury penthouses, apartments and houses in the 12 months to the end of December, after just a 4pc rise in the previous year, outstripping San Francisco, Sydney and Miami, according to a report from Christie’s international real estate group.
The study, which ranks the top 10 urban centres by the growth in sales of exclusive properties, found that the rate also slowed in Los Angeles, New York and Paris, while transactions declined in London, Dubai and Hong Kong last year.
Teens Getting Driver’s License Declining
I was running some errands this morning and caught Glenn Beck on the radio. He was discussing some societal trends that related to economics and brought up the fact that 19 year old people are declining in getting their drivers license. Here is what he said:
Nineteen year old people getting driver licenses has declined to 65%. Down from 93% just ten years ago.
This is a big drop so I decided to look up this decline and found the Washington Post wrote about it in 2013. Here’s what they found:
Back in 1983, about 87 percent of 19-year-olds had drivers’ licenses. But in 2010, only 69.5 percent did.
They also cited reasons in a survey of why they didn’t obtain the license and here is the breakdown:
—37 percent said they were either too busy or didn’t have the time to get a license.
—32 percent said that owning and maintaining a vehicle was just too expensive.
—31 percent said they could hitch a ride with someone else if needed.
—22 percent said they’d rather walk or bike.
—17 percent said they’d rather use public transportation.
—9 percent said they were worried about driving’s effects on the environment.
—8 percent said they could work or communicate online.
—7 percent cited disability or medical problems as their main reason.
Cost of Police Riot Gear
American law enforcement face a daunting task of regaining control of neighborhoods in cities once a riot breaks out. Police for decades have been educated and trained for these types of situations. Technology has developed to help the officers but it comes with a cost.
Friend of mine who is in law enforcement and has years of experience training for these scenarios gave out some information in the cost of some of the riot gear police use. Here is the breakdown of a few of the devices used by law enforcement:
One Hand Deployed Distraction Device, AKA “Flash Bang” – $50.00
One Flameless Chemical Tri Chamber, AKA “CS/CN Canister” – $50.00
One 12 Gauge Drag Stabilized Bean Bag Lethal Impact Round – $8.00
Oil Stocks Outperform in State Pension Funds
WorldOil.com is showing interesting investment returns on state pension funds invested in oil. The study was done by Sonecon.
On average, $1 invested in oil and natural gas stocks in 2005 was worth $2.30 in 2013. By contrast, $1 invested in all other assets over the same period was worth $1.68.
While oil and natural gas stocks make up, on average, 4% of holdings in the top public pension funds, they accounted for, on average, 8% of the returns in these funds from 2005 to 2013, according to the Sonecon study.
The report examines the top two public pension funds in 17 states, which collectively cover more than half (55%) of all workers in the U.S. who participate in state and local government pension plans.
States analyzed in the report are: California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and West Virginia.
Hoosier Econ 