Category / Financial

by Hoosier Econ

Are Pork Prices About to Become Cheaper?

In January I blogged about hog numbers expanding. Now more expansion has happened within the state and nationally. That is good news on the supply side which hopefully equates to some lower prices.

Here is more from HoosierAgToday.com –

Indiana’s total hog and pig inventory on March 1 was estimated at 3.65 million head, up 300,000 head from a year ago, according to Greg Matli, State Statistician, of the USDA, NASS, Indiana Field Office.

United States inventory of all hogs and pigs on March 1, 2015 was 65.9 million head. This was up 7 percent from March 1, 2014, but down slightly from December 1, 2014. Breeding inventory, at 5.98 million head, was up 2 percent from last year, and up 1 percent from the previous quarter.

by Hoosier Econ

Angie’s List Inc. is Perfect Example of Crony Capitalists

Angie’s List Inc.recently announced they put their Indianapolis project on hold due to the new RFRA law signed by Indiana Governor Mike Pence. This company has been bleeding money for quite some time and just went to the state begging for $18.5 million in public assistance. Here is snapshot I took this morning of how bad the stock has dropped in one year:
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Overall Angie’s List announcement on this matter is more desperation than practical. Crony capitalist companies like Angie’s List use tactics like this to hedge their bets in order to get more money out lawmakers then standing up for some social issue.

by Hoosier Econ

2015 Easter Retail Sales

Easter retail season is upon the United States and sales should spike this week. Here is what the National Retail Federation has projected for Easter sales:

80% of Americans said they plan to celebrate the Easter holiday this year by doling out an average $140.62 per person, up 2.3% from a year ago. Spending this Easter is expected to top $16.4 billion, up from $15.8 billion last year.

Here is a breakdown of the spending:

New clothes – $2.9 billion
Food – $5.3 billion
Candy – $2.2 billion
Gifts – $2.4 billion
Flowers – $1.1 billion
Decorations – $998 million
Greeting cards – $695 million

To this blogger, here is what my money will be spent on….

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H\T TheCityWire.com

by Hoosier Econ

Is Marc Benioff Breaking the Law With His Indiana Ban?

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SalesForce.com CEO Marc Benioff announced Thursday he is reducing the companies investment in Indiana due to Governor Mike Pence signing RFRA legislation.

There is nothing illegal with a CEO of a company being politically or socially active in government current events. The problem lies within the fact his company is a publicly traded investment. This means its listed on the stock exchange for all to buy. When you are a publicly traded company you must follow rules set forth by the Securities Exchange Commission when making big investment moves so stockholders can see. I will list a few but compliance can be found at Investor.gov:

    Current Reports on Form 8-K. Companies file this report with the SEC to announce major events that shareholders should know about, including bankruptcy proceedings, a change in corporate leadership (such as a new director or high-level officer), and preliminary earnings announcements.

And here is another rule for the company to follow moving any major investment out of Indiana that could affect shareholders investments. Shareholders would possibly need to vote on the matter:

    Proxy Statements. Shareholder voting constitutes one of the key rights of shareholders. They may elect members of the board of directors, cast non-binding votes on executive compensation, approve or reject proposed mergers and acquisitions, or vote on other important topics. Proxy statements describe the matters to be voted upon and often disclose information on the company’s executive compensation policies and practices.

To be clear, Marc Benioff is not claiming to be shutting down any operations at this time. A move like that would MOST DEFITINETLY have to be filed and voted on by shareholders. From my a**hole business experience I think he is bluffing and within months will be fully operational in sending people to Indiana for business. I’m positive his lawyers got a hold of him and made him carefully word his statement after the first one posted above. If he does start moving assets out like employees or selling off property without notification, then he will be in violation.

I will be following Investor.gov to monitor his threats.

by Hoosier Econ

Report: Shortage of 90,000 Physicians by 2025

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In a report prepared for the Association of American Medical Colleges a grim outlook was given concerning physician supply in the United States. Here is what was found:

    Demand for physicians continues to grow faster than supply, leading to a projected shortfall of
    between 46,100 and 90,400 physicians by 2025

The report can be read here. Much of the shortage will be from stronger demand of people getting on Obamacare.

by Hoosier Econ

Top 2014 Restaurant Franchise Sales Statistics

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New sales stats have been released for the top 50 franchise restaurants of 2014. Good numbers to look at if you are thinking about investing in one. I’m only posting the top 25, so visit StatisticBrain.com for the rest of the list. (Statistics are total sales / average store sales)

McDonald’s $35,600,000,000 / $2,600,000
Subway $12,100,000,000 / $481,000
Starbucks $10,600,000,000 / $1,223,000
Wendy’s $8,600,000,000 / $1,483,800
Burger King $8,587,000,000 / $1,195,000
Taco Bell $7,478,000,000 / $1,363,000
Dunkin’ Donuts $6,264,200,000 / $857,400
Pizza Hut $5,666,000,000 / $883,000
Chick-Fil-A $4,621,100,000 / $3,157,900
KFC $4,459,000,000 / $957,000
Panera Bread $3,861,000,000 / $2,427,200
Sonic Drive-In $3,790,700,000 / $1,074,000
Domino’s Pizza $3,500,000,000 / $710,200
Jack in the Box $3,084,900,000 / $1,379,000
Arby’s $2,992,000,000 / $993,200
Chipotle Mexican Grill $2,731,200,000 / $2,113,000
Papa John’s $2,402,400,000 / $829,000
Dairy Queen $2,300,000,000 / $545,000
Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen $2,253,000,000 / $1,242,000
Hardee’s $1,900,000,000 / $1,145,000
Panda Express $1,797,400,000 / $1,237,000
Little Caesars $1,684,000,000 / $465,000
Whataburger $1,476,800,000 / $1,996,000
Carl’s Jr. $1,400,000,000 / $1,470,000
Jimmy John’s $1,262,800,000 / $878,800

by Hoosier Econ

Medicaid Will Eat Up State Budgets in Near Future

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Obamacare for all intensive purposes is a gateway to universal healthcare via medicaid. When the ACA passed in 2010 it set up a medicaid program where the feds matched dollar for dollar states medicaid expansion. Here is a detailed explanation from the Chicago Tribune of an example in Illinois where estimated costs have ballooned from $500 Million to $2 Billion:

    Starting in 2017, Illinois and other states that also expanded their programs are required to start paying a small portion of the bill, rising to no more than 10 percent of the total tab. State health officials estimated in 2012 that Illinois’ portion of the expansion would cost $573 million from 2017 through 2020.

    Original projections anticipated that 199,000 residents would sign up in 2014, potentially rising to no more than 342,000. State officials estimated a monthly, per person cost of $454, and revised that number upward to $882 in the document sent to in June to federal officials.

    But through December, 540,877 joined Medicaid’s ranks. State officials said thousands more likely signed up through January.

Nationally, medicaid has exploded via Obamacare (9.7 million new enrollees) which means long term federal costs for ALL taxpayers.

by Hoosier Econ

Indiana Businesses Stuck With Unemployment Taxes

Indiana business owners get hammered with an aray of taxes that the public doesn’t take into consideration. One of them is unemployment taxes they have to pay. Indiana is still paying off the loan from federal government when the economy went south in 2008. Here is more from News-Sentinel.com:

    “We have a surplus? That’s because employers are eating it,” said Black, controller of Nowak Supply Co., 302 W. Superior St., which in the past two years has paid $10,000 in federal tax surcharges because Indiana still has not repaid all of the $2.4 billion it borrowed from the federal government in 2008 when the recession wiped out the state’s unemployment compensation fund. Nowak, which paid more than $14,000 in state and federal unemployment taxes last year, expects to pay another federal unemployment tax surcharge this year in excess of the $6,000 it paid last year — a penalty shared by other employers throughout the state.

    Then the recession hit and the account’s black ink turned into a raging river of red, which resulted in officials from Indiana and at lest 25 states to seek more than $47 billion in federal loans to keep unemployment benefits flowing. Indiana was supposed to have repaid its loan five years ago but still owes about $900 million, Frank said — debt that will be repaid in part by the penalties Nowak, Black and no doubt countless other business owners consider so unwise and unfair.


Unemployment taxes show that it makes businesses think about or actually hire less with its regressive taxation formula:

    After all, if a company’s penalty is determined by the number of employees, isn’t that just one more incentive to keep the labor force as small as possible?

by Hoosier Econ

2015 NFL Free Agency: $1.5 Billion in Contracts Signed by Players

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NFL free agency kicked off on Tuesday March 10th. Numerous players either stayed or left their teams in pursuit of greener pastures. How much in contracts were signed this past week? Sportrac.com has a system set up tracking these numbers and here is the breakdown from studying the signings.

– Over 100 free agents signed

– Average length of contracts is 3 years

– Total amount of all contracts signed (disclosed/undisclosed) tops over $1.5 Billion

– Total amount of guaranteed money NFL teams must pay is $634 Million. The top five contracts account for $170.9 Million of that.

NFL contracts almost never get fully paid out. Each year these contracts are reworked, players cut, retirement or clauses are invoked terminating the amounts paid. Guaranteed money is paid out in full barring any contract clauses not met.

by Hoosier Econ

Women Wanting “Big Butts” on the Rise

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A trend has been rising last few years with women…..Big Butts. Think it’s a joke, take a look at some of the money spent in pursuit of this fashion according to the Hollywood Reporter:

According to the American Association of Plastic Surgeons, desire for bigger behinds in the past five years has led to the fastest-growing cosmetic procedure, the “Brazilian butt lift,” in which fat is liposuctioned from other regions in the body to pad and “pop” the butt. “The biggest jump percentage is in butt enlargements,” says Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Lawrence Koplin.

For a price: The cost begins at $9,500, the procedure takes three to six hours with a minimum of 10 injections per cheek, and most Brazilian butt-lift patients must sleep on their stomachs and cannot sit down for two weeks.

There are even devices that can be bought for the appearance of a big butt:

Lisa Reisler, who with partner Susan Bloomstone invented Booty Pop padded panties in 2010, says: “We are now selling a pad that’s 40 percent larger than when we launched, and there are tons of requests. It used to be if your husband said your booty looked big in jeans, it was an insult. Now, it’s a compliment.

You can read the rest of the article here.