Victor V. Claar's Blog, page 3

Michael Hicks: What do economists do?

I did some office cleaning during the WVU vs. Coastal Carolina game this afternoon.  While I was sorting I discovered an excellent clipping I had saved from the Muncie Star Press by Michael Hicks, who directs the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State.

I am frequently asked, "just what does an economist do anyway?" It is a surprising question,
especially to an economist. It is certainly worth answering.

There are about 600 economics Ph.D.s produced annually in the U.S., and...

Remember When a "Double-Dip" Was No Worse than This?

Remember when a "double-dip" meant nothing more serious than poor food-handling behavior by Jerry Seinfeld's friend George Costanza?

From NPR: Why Coffee Is Getting More Expensive

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Here is an excellent new piece from NPR's always-engaging Planet Money team about the recent upswing in coffee prices.  It echoes several themes I articulate in my recent monograph, Fair Trade? Its Prospects as a Poverty Solution , especially the reasons why short-term coffee prices can be quite volatile.  They even mention that coffee "demand is inelastic!"

August 23 - The price of coffee beans hit a 12-year high today. I thought there might be some kind of...

Author Says Life Is Good, Despite Recession

Author and businessman Matt Ridley argues that life is getting better despite the recession. NewsHour economic correspondent Paul Solman finds a case of optimism with Ridley, built in part upon Ridley's latest book, The Rational Optimist.

Righteous Coffee?

D.C. Innes, writing for World:

I spent a week at Princeton Theological Seminary for a summer seminar on the role of Christian thinking on the American Revolution. It was an enriching experience in many ways, not the least of which was the coffee. Because PTS is an institution of the Presbyterian Church (USA), a politically progressive and in some ways trendy denomination, all the coffee was guaranteed righteous. There was social justice in every cup. You see, Presbyterian coffee, of the ...

Wendy's Commercial - Soviet Fashion Show

The Cold War made for some pretty entertaining pop culture. Like this Wendy's Commercial . . .

The Decline: The Geography of a Recession

According to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are nearly 31 million people currently unemployed -- that's including those involuntarily working parttime and those who want a job, but have given up on trying to find one. In the face of the worst economic upheaval since the Great Depression, millions of Americans are hurting. "The Decline: The Geography of a Recession," as created by labor writer LaToya Egwuekwe, serves as a vivid representation of just...

The Shape of the Recovery?

From CFO:  Eight economists debate what the recovery will look like.

Russ Banham - CFO Magazine

Much of the recent talk about an economic recovery concerns what shape it will take — literally. Will the plunge and rebound conform to the "V" shape that described the 1973–74 recession, be akin to the "U"-shaped recovery seen after the 1981–82 recession, or sputter into the dreaded "W" — twin recessions (the much-discussed "double dip") that keep the economy on the ropes for years?

We asked...

Opinion: New Jobs at $100,000 a Pop?

Short-story writer and novelist Mark Budman from does the dollars-per-job math of the Local Jobs for America Act:

(July 30) -- The Local Jobs for America Act proposes to spend up to $100 billion to create and save a million public and private jobs in communities this year. While a million jobs sounds like a huge number, let's look at the money spent on that task and analyze the premise.

What does it mean to "create and save"? If a person is laid off after, say, six months on the job...

From the Onion: Unemployment High Because People Keep Blowing Their Job Interviews

From those silly folks at the Onion:

WASHINGTON—With unemployment at its highest level in decades, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a report Tuesday suggesting the crisis is primarily the result of millions of Americans just completely blowing their job interviews.

According to the findings, seven out of 10 Americans could have landed their dream job last month if they had known where they see themselves in five years, and the number of unemployed could be reduced from 14.6 million...