Weekly Roundup: From Aging in China to Smiling in Denmark

Our economic news summary includes social welfare and Denmark, crowdsourcing and contests, hitting the debt ceiling, aging concerns and expensive lobsters.

The Lobster Market: On a Roll

With Asian demand up and supply slightly down, the price of Maine lobster climbed to its highest levels since 2007.

A Surprising Reason for Newspaper Bias

Would a Democrat say… Estate tax or Death tax? Tax breaks or Tax relief? War in Iraq or War on Terror? Privatize Social Security or Personal retirement accounts? Oil and gas companies or Energy and natural resources? (Answers are below.) The phrases…

Why Might Salsa Prices Soar?

During the 1970s we did not eat many limes, maybe less than 1/2 a pound each year, and most were from Florida. Now our consumption has tripled and the lime has gone global. Faced with cheap Mexican limes, devastation from Hurricane…

Eight Technologies That Will Destroy and Create Businesses

Making money was the Goldman Sachs agenda in an August, 2013 report. In “The Search for Creative Destruction,” their equity research connected Schumpeter’s creative destruction to investing opportunities. Eight new technologies, they said, would force businesses to “adapt or die.”…

The Unintended Consequences of Banning Ivory Sales

New US ivory regulations have had unintended consequences. During November 2013, the US government “pulverized” nearly 6 tons of elephant ivory from Asia and Africa. Intending to send a message to elephant poachers, the Fish and Wildlife Service destroyed ivory that…

The Benefits of “Pay-It-Forward”

Perhaps a pay-it-forward record, at a Connecticut Starbucks, more than 1,000 people each paid for the person behind them during December 2013. The store manager was on to something when he said, “”We hope that it will continue on, even…

More About Colorado Pot Tax, California Eggs and Library e-Books

Updates today on Colorado marijuana, California eggs and pricey library e-books: Marijuana Elasticity: With Colorado’s recreational marijuana tax close to 30%, I was skeptical that they would generate the revenue they expected. Now, it appears they might. During January, the state collected $2…

More Expensive Ice Cream?

Milk prices are going up. And yet, in the US, we are drinking less milk. According to Corey Geiger, managing editor of Hoard’s Dairyman magazine, one reason is oil. Countries in the Middle East with massive oil reserves have to import 90%…

The California/Missouri Chicken Cage Disagreement

Sort of like coach or first class, most of the chickens that lay our eggs live in a battery or a colony cage.  In the typical cage called the battery, a chicken has 67 square inches. By contrast, colony cages…