High Cost Of Food Causing Riots, Widespread Poverty Around The World

February 24th, 2011

“The World Bank says food prices are at “dangerous levels” and have pushed 44 million more people into poverty since last June.

According to the latest edition of its Food Price Watch, prices rose by 15% in the four months between October 2010 and January this year.

Food price inflation is felt disproportionately by the poor, who spend over half their income on food.”

What do you think?

As a philanthropist, how would you approach the problem of unaffordable food?

And I Would Have Gotten Away With It, Too, If It Weren’t For That Rascally Ecuadorean Judge…

February 24th, 2011

“CARACAS, Venezuela — A judge in a tiny courtroom in the Ecuadorean Amazon ruled Monday that the oil giant Chevron was responsible for polluting remote tracts of Ecuadorean jungle and ordered the company to pay more than $9 billion in damages, one of the largest environmental awards ever.”

What do you think?

Is $9 billion enough to cover large-scale destruction of the environment and irreparable damage to human health? Is it too much?

And would knowing that BP has already pledged $20 billion to pay for damages related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill change your mind?

Midwest Workers To Governors: We’re Not Paying For Your Deficit

February 24th, 2011

wisconsin-union-protest.jpg
(photo credit: marctasman)

State governments around the country are facing serious budget deficits, and something needs to be done. But unionized workers in Wisconsin, Ohio, and Indiana are pretty sure that that something shouldn’t include eliminating their right to organize.

  • Republican-sponsored bills in the three states propose to chip away at budget deficits by limiting or eliminating the power of private and public-sector workers to unionize.
  • Most of the bills would curtail the right to collective bargaining. This is the process by which a group of employees in a particular company or industry can negotiate with business owners for better pay, improved working conditions, or greater job security (among other things).
  • Collective bargaining was critical to reform in an era when children worked in factories and most workers were glorified indentured servants. Today, opponents say it’s unnecessary and costly. Supporters argue that without it, they are at risk of the same historical abuses that led to the union movement in the first place.

Facts & Figures

  • The Wisconsin bill would save the state an estimated $300 million over two years
  • The state’s budget deficit for that period is approximately $3.6 billion
  • Tens of thousands of protesters have packed the capitals of the three affected states in recent weeks
  • In Wisconsin, Democratic legislators actually fled the state to prevent the budget bill from being passed

Best Quote

“Governor Kasich decided he wants to squash unions and found a creative way to do it, but he has to realize that we’ve fought this battle before and he will not stop us because we will fight to the very end.” – JoAnn Johntony, President of the Ohio Association of Public School Employees

What do you think?

Are unions still necessary? Do you know anyone who is a member of a union?

Is limiting the right to collective bargaining a good long-term solution for these states, or a quick fix?

Get to it!

Union disagreements aren’t limited to factory workers, firefighters, and public school teachers. Check out Amy’s explanation of a potential strike of NFL players here.

Money is the root of all YUCK!

February 24th, 2011

Germy currencies from around the world…

“Fun” Fact: Australia had the cleanest currency in the study, and the U.S. dollar had the highest concentration of E. coli – the bacteria that causes food poisoning.

(Don’t be offended by the giant “FOR KIDS” headline at the top of the article. Money is gross no matter how old you are.)

Money is the root of all YUCK!

February 24th, 2011

Germy currencies from around the world…

“Fun” Fact: Australia had the cleanest currency in the study, and the U.S. dollar had the highest concentration of E. coli – the bacteria that causes food poisoning.

(Don’t be offended by the giant “FOR KIDS” headline at the top of the article. Money is gross no matter how old you are.)

The NYSE Is Worth Less (and More) Than You Think…

February 24th, 2011

nyse-1909.jpg
(credit: jarapet)

How a marriage of two stock exchanges illustrates the modern revolution in stock trading.

  • The New York Stock Exchange – famed hall of capitalist drama – has just been acquired by a German company called Deutsche Boerse. The result will be a giant international company with stock exchanges in Lisbon, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, New York and Frankfurt.
  • The way people trade stocks has totally transformed as technology has changed. Most trades these days are executed by computers with almost no human involvement. Since computers are smaller and cheaper than human traders, it’s possible for more small exchanges to exist, and that means more competition for giants like the NYSE.
  • The NYSE still operates a real trading floor with real people, making it ancient by today’s standards. Fewer companies are bothering to even get listed on the NYSE. This merger is an attempt by the exchange to stay competitive in an increasingly crowded industry.
  • Still, the trading floor, the opening bell, and that building on Wall Street are worth something. In fact, according to the latest valuation, they’re worth about $10 billion.

Facts & Figures

  • The NYSE has been on Wall Street since 1792, when 24 merchants traded stocks under a buttonwood tree (you know, back when there were trees on Wall St.)
  • The new company formed by the merger will be 60% owned by Deutsche Boerse
  • High-frequency trading (a.k.a. computer trading) accounts for about 70% of all daily trades

Best Quote

“The exchange business is really a computer business these days.” – Charles Jones, Professor at Columbia Business School, former visiting economist at the NYSE

What do you think?

Did you know that stock exchanges like the NYSE are themselves publicly-traded, for-profit companies?

How much does a name brand influence your decision to buy (or invest)?

Get to it!

Thinking about investing in stocks? Take our Risk Assessment Quiz to see how much equity you can handle.

Your parents aren’t going to be happy about this…

February 23rd, 2011

Ouch. According to a new study, college students are spending four (or more) years and thousands of dollars on higher education, but they’re not actually learning anything.


(photo credit: peanutian)

Here’s the short story:

Students are slacking off, colleges are more focused on enrolling and keeping new students than they are on making sure each student gets a quality education, and professors are having trouble keeping up with their increasingly large class sizes as more and more people attend college.

Here are the fun facts:

  • 45 percent of students “did not demonstrate any significant improvement in learning” during the first two years of college.
  • 36 percent of students “did not demonstrate any significant improvement in learning” over four years of college.
  • Students who study by themselves for more hours each week gain more knowledge — while those who spend more time studying in peer groups see diminishing gains.
  • Students whose classes reflect high expectations (more than 40 pages of reading a week and more than 20 pages of writing a semester) gained more than other students.
  • Students who spend more time in fraternities and sororities show smaller gains than other students.

Read the whole story here.

Your parents aren’t going to be happy about this…

February 23rd, 2011

Ouch. According to a new study, college students are spending four (or more) years and thousands of dollars on higher education, but they’re not actually learning anything.


(photo credit: peanutian)

Here’s the short story:

Students are slacking off, colleges are more focused on enrolling and keeping new students than they are on making sure each student gets a quality education, and professors are having trouble keeping up with their increasingly large class sizes as more and more people attend college.

Here are the fun facts:

  • 45 percent of students “did not demonstrate any significant improvement in learning” during the first two years of college.
  • 36 percent of students “did not demonstrate any significant improvement in learning” over four years of college.
  • Students who study by themselves for more hours each week gain more knowledge — while those who spend more time studying in peer groups see diminishing gains.
  • Students whose classes reflect high expectations (more than 40 pages of reading a week and more than 20 pages of writing a semester) gained more than other students.
  • Students who spend more time in fraternities and sororities show smaller gains than other students.

Read the whole story here.

Even if Mom is still doing your laundry, you can always make graphs

February 22nd, 2011

Even if the graphs are, oh, maybe just a little misleading. Take this one, for example. It appears to say that the reason certain European countries are in worse financial shape than others is because more of their men want to stay at home playing videogames.

See? Italy, Greece, Spain, and Portugal are over there on the right, with more of their menfolk living with the parents. And, conveniently, those same countries rank high on the riskiness (a.k.a. sovereign risk) of their government bonds (a.k.a. sovereign debt).

If he lives with his parents, you might want to think twice. About buying his government’s debt. (via The Economist)

But in case your statistics teacher hasn’t drilled this into your heads yet, correlation is not causation. This is a real-world example of that. Just because you can make a chart with a nice line on it doesn’t necessarily mean that one factor causes the other. Think about this:

  • The % of men living with their parents may be another way of describing the % of men who are unemployed (or underemployed). That would certainly be a factor in a country’s financial health.
  • Adult kids living with their folks might be due to a really expensive housing market, which is another factor in a country’s financial situation.
  • The countries with the highest % of men living with their parents all have cultural traditions that encourage kids to stay with their parents until they marry, or sometimes even after.
  • Ireland doesn’t have this culture of stay-at-home-til-you’re-40, but their bonds are still considered risky investments. If you just focus on the red line, you might miss this important point.

In conclusion:

  1. Correlation is not causation
  2. Think before you reblog
  3. If you can’t do either of those things, at least read the comments

Even if Mom is still doing your laundry, you can always make graphs

February 22nd, 2011

Even if the graphs are, oh, maybe just a little misleading. Take this one, for example. It appears to say that the reason certain European countries are in worse financial shape than others is because more of their men want to stay at home playing videogames.

See? Italy, Greece, Spain, and Portugal are over there on the right, with more of their menfolk living with the parents. And, conveniently, those same countries rank high on the riskiness (a.k.a. sovereign risk) of their government bonds (a.k.a. sovereign debt).

If he lives with his parents, you might want to think twice. About buying his government’s debt. (via The Economist)

But in case your statistics teacher hasn’t drilled this into your heads yet, correlation is not causation. This is a real-world example of that. Just because you can make a chart with a nice line on it doesn’t necessarily mean that one factor causes the other. Think about this:

  • The % of men living with their parents may be another way of describing the % of men who are unemployed (or underemployed). That would certainly be a factor in a country’s financial health.
  • Adult kids living with their folks might be due to a really expensive housing market, which is another factor in a country’s financial situation.
  • The countries with the highest % of men living with their parents all have cultural traditions that encourage kids to stay with their parents until they marry, or sometimes even after.
  • Ireland doesn’t have this culture of stay-at-home-til-you’re-40, but their bonds are still considered risky investments. If you just focus on the red line, you might miss this important point.

In conclusion:

  1. Correlation is not causation
  2. Think before you reblog
  3. If you can’t do either of those things, at least read the comments
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