Consilience Productions - MoneyConsilience Productions - MoneyConsilience Productions wants to connect topics that might seem mutually exclusive at first, but are, in fact, associated in one way or another. The MONEY blog comments on economic policy issues with a particular focus on the non-profit sector.
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Sports subsidies: A New York Yankees Case Study
2008-05-28 00:00:00 David Kay Johnston, in his new book, "Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill)," talks about the extent that tax-payer subsidies support Major League sports in this country, with particular attention to the new Yankees stadium being built in The Bronx. In a recent interview with Amy Goodman at Democracy Now!, he pointed out, Now, in this country right now, we are spending $2 billion a year subsidizing the big four sports: baseball, basketball, football and hockey. It accounts for all of the profits of that industry and more. Now, there may be individual teams that make money, but the industry as a whole is not profitable. And that's astonishing because the big four leagues are exempt from the laws of competition. By the way, irony is not dead, because here are people who are in the business of competition on the field who are exempted by law from the rules of economic competition. George Steinbrenner is getting... More About: Sports , New York , Study , New York Yankees , York
Mutual Fund Screener
2008-05-22 00:00:00 Here's a really interesting tool that Calvert Fund s has set up to screen any mutual fund to make sure that it's adhering to socially responsible criteria, such as alcohol, Sudan, tobacco, weapons, workplace safety, etc. It's called "Know What You Own," and it's a fascinating tool to research mutual funds that are under the Socially Responsible Investing category. More About: Mutual fund , Mutual
How futures and options are making rich farmers poor.
2008-04-22 00:00:00 For those interested in the nuanced and hazy world of how futures and options work, in particular in relation to soft commodities like soybeans, wheat, corn, and cotton, the NY Times has a very interesting article out detailing how these markets are ailing: Prices of broad commodity indexes have climbed as much as 40 percent in the last year and grain prices have gained even more -- about 65 percent for corn, 91 percent for soybeans and more than 100 percent for some types of wheat. This price boom has attracted a torrent of new investment from Wall Street, estimated to be as much as $300 billion. Whether new investors are causing the market's problems or keeping them from getting worse is in dispute. But there is no question that the grain markets are now experiencing levels of volatility that are running well above the average levels over the last quarter-century. Until recently, that system had worked well for generations. Since 1959, grain producers have been able to hedge th... More About: Rich , Futures , Options , Poor , Farmers
Don't like taxes? Consider the alternative.
2008-04-07 00:00:00 With another dreaded tax deadline looming in less than 10 days, all Americans are required to pitch in and contribute their "fair" share of the budget needed to run the country. Although it makes sense that we all want something for nothing, you never hear the counter-argument that it feels great to contribute to the village coffer. Where's the person who exclaims: "Yes! Tax day is here. I LOVE paying taxes!!"? Perhaps the answer is as simple as, "If I got what I paid for, I'd be happy." And since most Americans feel like their representatives spend their money unwisely in wasteful endeavors, it makes sense that we all hate paying taxes. Yet, a recent essay by Peter Bernstein in the NY Times focuses on the positives of paying taxes: Every year at tax time, someone is sure to remind us of Benjamin Franklin's maxim that nothing is certain but death and taxes. The statement happens to be true, but associating taxes with death adds only to the gloom of the moment. My goal here is t... More About: Taxes , Alternative , The Alternative
Condo woes...from Miami to Kazakhstan.
2008-03-23 00:00:00 Amazing. We all knew that the situation was serious here in America: The condominium market is about to get worse as many cities brace for a flood of new supply this year -- the result of construction started at the height of the housing boom. More than 4,000 new units will be completed in both Atlanta and Phoenix by the end of the year. Developers in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., are readying nearly 10,000 total new units in a market already struggling with canyons of unsold condos. San Diego, another hard-hit region, will add 2,500 units, according to estimates provided by Reis Inc., a New York-based real-estate-research firm. Lenders of all sizes have $42 billion of condominium debt on their books, according to Foresight Analytics. In just three months -- between the third and fourth quarters of last year -- the delinquency rate rose to 10% from 5.9%, says the Oakland, Calif., research firm. Ouch! But in the glorious Republic of Kazakhstan ? Kazakh homebuyers are being lef... More About: Condo
Trading and Sex
2008-03-20 00:00:00 With all the recent gyrations on Wall Street (Bear Stearns goes from $60 to $2 a share in three days and the DOW rockets up 400 points today), it's got to make you wonder about all the adrenaline and hormones... More About: Trading
Lessons from the mortgage meltdown
2008-03-03 00:00:00 How on earth could a measly $400 billion in losses from the mortgage meltdown cause the massive slowdown in the economy that we're witnessing? Or as Frederic Mishkin, a Fed Governor, asked at the U.S. Monetary Policy Forum in New... More About: Mortgage , Lessons
Homeowners are losing their equity lines
2008-02-26 00:00:00 Is this a new trend? Several of the nation's largest lenders, along with smaller ones, are shutting off access to home equity lines in areas where home values are declining. It's an unusually aggressive move as the industry grapples with... More About: Lines , Homeowners , Equity
Factory farms, school children, and the food supply
2008-02-19 00:00:00 The largest beef recall in U.S. history has begun as a direct result of this video taken by an undercover animal rights activist associated with the Humane Society of the United States: The video raised questions about the safety of... More About: Children , Food , Factory , School , Farms
Eliot Spitzer: Bond Insurers have only days to re-capitalize
2008-02-16 00:00:00 Can this be for real? Bond insurers have four to five business days to re-capitalize themselves enough to keep their crucial AAA credit ratings, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer said during a Congressional hearing on the $2.4 trillion industry on... More About: Eliot Spitzer , Days
A $34 billion ticket to a new job
2008-01-29 00:00:00 Wall Street has lost billions because of bad decisions by executives in top positions. Thousand and thousands of layoffs are coming, but what happens to those individuals at the top who are responsible for the losses? It seems that they... More About: Ticket , Billion
How will this economic downturn end?
2008-01-27 00:00:00 It's been over six years since the end of the last recession, which turned out to be a shallow and short-lived one. Since many economists believe that this current economic slowdown might very well already be a new recession, it's... More About: Economic
Son of Boss...tax shelter?
2007-12-28 00:00:00 Finally, the IRS won one: A civil court has ruled that a popular tax-avoidance scheme known as Son of Boss was abusive and any deductions claimed for it were invalid, an important victory for the Internal Revenue Service in its... More About: Shelter
S.E.C. votes against investors
2007-12-20 00:00:00 In a long-awaited vote, the Securities and Exchange Commission voted late last month to prevent investors from nominating directors of publicly-held companies by proxy vote: The anti-investor vote by the three sitting commissioners and the agency's chairman, Christopher Cox, took... More About: Investors , Votes
The $10 Dollar Club
2007-12-05 00:00:00 It's that time of the year when we do most of our giving, and with all of the opportunities to help others, there is one tiny little organization that stands out from the rest - The Ten Dollar Club . Adam...
Subprime Spillover
2007-12-04 00:00:00 A new report from the Center for Responsible Lending details how one foreclosure in a neighborhood can affect surrounding residences: In this report, we estimate how many homes - including families who are paying their mortgage on time - will... More About: Subprime
Winner and Losers in the deregulated credit card industry
2007-11-25 00:00:00 Demos, a non-partisan public policy research and advocacy organization, publishes studies and reports on various economic and political topics. Their Economic Opportunity Program addresses the widespread economic insecurity and declining opportunity that characterizes American society today. For instance, they've published... More About: Card , Credit , Industry , Credit Card , Winner
How Iraqi bond prices predict the future of Iraq
2007-11-18 00:00:00 How's this for a concept: Follow the Money! President Bush's surge of troops in Iraq has done little to resolve the political debate over the Iraq war. But global financial markets have been monitoring the war for months, and with... More About: Bond , Future , The Future , Iraqi
Striking writers in Hollywood and Times Square
2007-11-16 00:00:00 Is it a coincidence that the writers in Hollywood and on Broadway are striking at the same time? Or is it just a further example of greedy business trying pay little or nothing for the intellectual property that brings it... More About: Writers , Times Square , Times , Square
The owners who can't hire or fire
2007-10-28 01:00:00 Whenever you hear someone talk about how democratic U.S. corporations are, make sure you correct them. Gretchen Morgenson of the NY Times has been writing on this issue for years. Corporations, which are supposed to be owned by its shareholders,... More About: Hire , Fire , Owners , The O
Taxing Bling-Bling = The End of the Federal Income Tax
2007-10-10 00:00:00 Is there a way out of our federal budget morass? According to many economists, including Robert Frank, By replacing federal income taxes with a steeply progressive consumption tax, the United States could erase the federal deficit, stimulate additional savings, pay... More About: Income , Bling , Income Tax , Bling Bling
Supercapitalism
2007-10-02 00:00:00 A recent book review of "Supercapitalism," by former labor secretary of the Clinton Administration, Robert Reich, details how the gigantic army of 140 million laborers has "morphed into a nation of consumers and investors, rather than citizens." It was during...
Is the housing slump worse than we expected?
2007-09-23 00:00:00 From McClatchy: The Wachovia Economics Group, part of the Charlotte, N.C. - based national bank Wachovia, warned investors Wednesday that "the damage being done to the housing market is more severe than the recent numbers suggest." In a special report,... More About: Housing , Slump , Lump
Who likes to pay taxes? Check the brain scan.
2007-09-15 00:00:00 A few months ago, The NY Times ran an interesting article on the effect that giving (or altruism) has on the brain (i.e. what type of person is more likely to be an altruist, and hence, more likely to enjoy... More About: Taxes , Check , Brain , Scan , The Brain
Single Payer Health Care? Check the American Psyche.
2007-09-06 00:00:00 In a wonderful article from the NY Times months ago, we have this: The economic case for a single-payer system is surprisingly strong. Start with what we already know. Countries with single-payer systems have long records of spending less on... More About: Health , Health Care , American , Care , Check
Home Prices: Steepest Drop in 20 Years
2007-08-31 00:00:00 Ouch! U.S. home prices fell 3.2 percent in the second quarter, the steepest rate of decline since Standard & Poor's began its nationwide housing index in 1987, the research group said Tuesday. The decline in home prices around the nation... More About: Home , Years , Ears , Drop , Prices
Make Money, Save the World - The Fourth Sector
2007-08-25 00:00:00 A few months ago, the NY Times ran an interesting article on hybrid non-profits run as as if they were true profit-maximizing ventures. It's being called the "Fourth Sector": Composed of organizations driven by both social purpose and financial promise... More About: World , Money , Make Money , The World , Make
How bad is this credit crunch?
2007-08-12 00:00:00 We've all scene the massive gyrations in the stock market over the past month, and everyone is asking whether it will get worse. When it gets difficult to assess the risk involved with a certain investment, most professionals sell first... More About: Credit , Crunch
Does Senator Schumer support a 15% tax rate for Hedgefund Billionaires?
2007-08-06 00:00:00 There is a federal tax issue on the table worth highlighting as the Congress goes on vacation. It seems that rich billionaire hedge-fund managers pay lower taxes on their income than most Americans - 15% vs. 30-35% for the average... More About: Support , Billionaires , Schumer , Bill , Senator
Aquafina forced to reveal true source of its water: TAP!
More articles from this author:2007-07-29 00:00:00 This entry could easily be stuck in our EARTH section: So you thought that water in your Aqua fina bottle came from some far-away spring bubbling deep in a glen? Try the same place as the water in your tap. PepsiCo... More About: Source , Forced , Water , True 1, 2 |
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