In the pilot episode of NBC’s self-referential 30 Rock, the new boss accurately stereotypes a member of middle management after meeting her just thirty seconds before.
Parody? Undoubtedly. Is it a thing? Yes, it’s a thing.
Price Discrimination – and the Economics of Smaller Magazines.
Posted By Last updated July 11th, 2012 18 Comments
Inflation is Good! (Or not horrible)
Posted By Last updated June 27th, 2012 9 Comments
Media and fellow bloggers alike enjoy bemoaning the hazardous plague of inflation. I will show that not only is this argument not grounded in reality, but that it also ignores many ancillary benefits of an inflationary rate: spending encouragement, debtor relief and avoidance of a deflationary spiral.
The Curiously Large Mortgage Spread of the Moment
Posted By Last updated June 18th, 2012 8 Comments
Last week, my colleague Cameron gave you this nice primer on the mortgage interest deduction and who it really benefits. Today, we’re going to take this topic one step further (on the sell-side) and discuss government intervention in the mortgage market.
Mortgage Interest Deduction A Good Idea?
Posted By Last updated June 13th, 2012 7 Comments
It has been mentioned here and elsewhere that the mortgage interest deduction in the tax code is a roundabout way of subsidizing banks. If interest rates are determined by supply and demand then the demand for interest rates is only dependent on what a taxpayer’s “effective interest expense is”. A new study suggests that most of the benefits fall into the hands of lenders.
Sponsored Video. Finacial Times: The Global Economy
Posted By Last updated May 29th, 2012 6 Comments
If you’ve followed Don’t Quit Your Day Job for a while now, you know that we don’t really settle when it comes to accepting statistics at face value. Just like when Vince Vaughan’s character in Swingers called Jon Favreau’s character “the guy behind the guy”, we hopefully have been succeeding in our goal to provide you with the “story behind the story”. This video from the Financial Times? It definitely fits the bill.
Weird Effects of Inflation: The Costs of Coinage
Posted By Last updated April 9th, 2012 30 Comments
“Currently, the costs of making the penny and the nickel are more than twice the face value of each of those coins.” – Timothy Geithner
As a personal finance web site, we here at DQYDJ tend to spill more than the average amount of (digital) ink on the topic of inflation. The correct way to measure inflation, the comparison of interest rates and mortgages, and loads and loads of articles on market inflation expectations… we’ve covered it all. One thing we haven’t covered is the specific irony the US Treasury encounters when it comes to coining currency – specifically, small denomination coins currently cost more in raw materials to produce than the actual value of the coin.
We’re sure you’ve heard the quote “greater than the sum of its parts”. In this case, the value of certain coins is less than the sum of its parts… Oy Vey!
Poor Buy/Sell Timing
Posted By Last updated April 4th, 2012 3 Comments
It’s been mentioned many times, here and elsewhere, that simply putting money into the market is the best strategy to invest and performs better than trying to time the market or choose individual stocks. This is coming off Warren Buffett pulling ahead of the hedge fund of hedge funds. I have an inkling that most people here will agree with this.
Lottery Winnings
Posted By Last updated April 2nd, 2012 5 Comments
As has been mentioned in previous articles, people from all demographics have a taste for gambling. As Personal Finance blogger, I may not seem like the type of person who is intrigued by lottery payouts, but here in the States the recent Mega Millions drawing was estimated at a lump sum payment of $462 million. If we assume a 1 in 176 million chance to win and a 50% tax rate, the expected value of a $1 lottery ticket seems to be $1.31! Additionally, losses are tax deductible against other gambling winngs (meaning that $1 may only cost you $0.75 or less) and a significant portion goes to fund state governments, very often in the form of education subsidies.
What is the True Inflation Rate?
Posted By Last updated March 21st, 2012 20 Comments
One of our favorite things to debate here on DQYDJ is the validity of the inflation rate. On the whole, we think that the method the government uses to track inflation is a decent gauge of the prices an ‘average person’ in America pays for a particular basket of goods.
That strict definition is where many of you have a problem. Who among us is a ‘typical person’, who spends their money in the exact proportions as the average of all Americans? Well, no one.
Home Price Recovery and the Federal Reserve
Posted By Last updated March 15th, 2012 11 Comments
We have dealt a lot recently with historically low interest rates and their implications on not only the cost of housing and mortgages, but also implications for consumer credit and inflation. Although we have explained home price affordability in the San Francisco Bay Area before, we haven’t discussed the large variance in regional real estate prices.
