Category / United States Government

by Hoosier Econ

City of Terre Haute Broke?

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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

by Hoosier Econ

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.

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by Hoosier Econ

Inflation Alert: Chipotle Restaurant

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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.

by Hoosier Econ

Rich People Are Moving To Toronto?

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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.

by Hoosier Econ

Teens Getting Driver’s License Declining

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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.

by Hoosier Econ

Cost of Police Riot Gear

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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

by Hoosier Econ

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.

by Hoosier Econ

Example of Why Healthcare Is Expensive

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H/T Glenn Reynolds of PJ Media

by Hoosier Econ

Hybrid Car Owners Breaking Up With Mother Earth

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Hybrid car owners are not feeling the love of the environment anymore and showing it with their purchasing power. I remember the hysteria a decade ago if you didn’t buy a hybrid then you didn’t love Mother Earth. JustFactsDaily.com had this question up on their website for viewers to answer:

    Thus far in 2015, what portion of the people who traded in a hybrid or electric car purchased another such car?

Once you answered, they provided documentation to research done by Edmunds.com:

    Car buyers are trading in hybrid and electric cars for SUVs at a higher rate than ever before, according to a new analysis from car-buying platform Edmunds.com.

    According to Edmunds.com, about 22 percent of people who have traded in their hybrids and EVs in 2015 bought a new SUV. The number represents a sharp increase from 18.8 percent last year, and it is nearly double the rate of 11.9 percent just three years ago. Overall, only 45 percent of this year’s hybrid and EV trade-ins have gone toward the purchase of another alternative fuel vehicle, down from just over 60 percent in 2012. Never before have loyalty rates for alt-fuel vehicles fallen below 50 percent.

Edmunds also provides analysis of how long it takes financially to justify paying the price of hybrid vehicles with gas price savings:

    To underscore the point, Edmunds calculates that at the peak average national gas price of $4.67/gallon in October 2012, it would take five years to break even on the $3,770 price difference between a Toyota Camry LE Hybrid ($28,230) and a Toyota Camry LE ($24,460). At today’s national average gas price of $2.27/gallon, it would take twice as much time (10.5 years) to close the same gap.
by Hoosier Econ

How the State of Indiana Budget is Spent

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H/T BallotPedia.org