Don’t Quit Your Day Job – Personal Finance, Economics and Investing

A popular topic in the blogosphere, given new life after comments by Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman, is the relative success of the United States vs. the states that make up the European Union. The European Union is a loose confederation of 27 countries in Europe, ranging from Spain to Estonia. Krugman goes so far to suggest that “[y]ou should always bear in mind that when the question is which to believe — official economic statistics or your own lying eyes — the eyes have it.”

A collection of links and carnival hosts for the week.

A recent unemployment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics introduced some light into the dreary situation in which the economy finds itself. Yes; the official U-3 unemployment numbers are in- and the headline unemployment number is now 9.4% unemployment compared to the previous 9.5%. U-6, a broader measure of unemployment (specifically the total employed, marginally attached workers and part time workers who want to work full time in the civilian labor force and marginally attached workers) ticked down from 16.5% to 16.3%. On the surface, a pretty good report. However, some signs of weakness are right below the surface.

Carnivals DQYDJ articles are featured in for the week of August 10, and select links from around the internet on interesting and relevant topics.

I want to share another fascinating Economic study with you… this one from Brown University. The three authors, J. Vernon Henderson, Adam Storeygard and David Weil, were looking for a way to track economic growth in regions which have poor geographic connections, poor statistics, or have other impediments to useful growth tracking. Using light (specifically, light coverage in satellite photos) as a proxy for economic activity (“Consumption of nearly all goods in the evening requires lights”, they state), they show the growth in productivity in remote regions using nighttime satellite pictures.

Our article “On Cigarette Laws and Pigovian Taxes, Part I” was hosted in the Money Hacks carnival for this week. Go check out the carnival, and the Moolonomy site!

The article “Use Irrationality Against Yourself!” is hosted at the Carnival of Financial Planning for this week, over on CashMoneyLife. There are some interesting articles there, check it out.

Go check out “Go Home Already! Congress vs. the Stock Market”, hosted on ChristianPF for this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance.

Our article “Know the Signs! Pyramids and Ponzis…” is featured on the 101st edition of the Carnival of Financial Planning! Visit the carnival, and the host, Watson Inc.

Behavioral finance and economics have recently exploded onto the national scene. These two behavioral topics deal with the idea of ‘rationality’; they are concerned with the rationality of the decisions of members of a population and the limits to an individual’s rationality. Studies show that humans have many irrational tendencies which can be shown experimentally.

Nature is a fickle host. Between hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, tsunamis and other natural disasters, she throws plenty of challenges at mankind. I’ve written previously about the false belief that a public option in health care reform won’t quickly crowd out private companies from the insurance market. I present to you a cautionary tale from the other side of the fence… a Republican Governor (and possible Presidential candidate in 2012) who is playing pickle with nature.

Where did the estimate of 46 million people in America without health insurance come from? You probably have health insurance through your employer or through some other means. However, there are people in this country without insurance. What does it mean, and why is the number’s background not nearly as scary as the number itself? Read on…

Can states default on their debt? The state of California has been in the news recently because of a $24.3 billion gap in funding. Is it possible that we may soon hear of a state actually going ‘bankrupt’? What are the economic and political ramifications if California takes such a step?