Saturday, February 23, 2013

WSJ Links -- Friday and Saturday

Only section A from both editions for now (due to number of articles). Perhaps more, later.

Minimum wage? Not for Congressional internships; mileage and parking not reimbursed either; oh, by the way: ObamaCare? Congress exempted itself.

Forrest Gump at Treasury; Jack Lew doesn't seem to know much about how or why he got paid; I saw a bit of his testimony on television; that was my impression; he did not know why he was paid his salary at Citi, nor what he actually was in charge of; it was quite remarkable.

Wow, comparing the price of a cup of Starbucks coffee based on currency exchanges:
  • San Francisco: $3.55
  • Detroit (the bankrupt city): $3.55
  • New York: $4.30
  • Frankfurt, Germany: $5.53
  • Moscow: $7.27
  • Oslo, Norway: $9.83
Not to be outdone, the Economist has the "Big Mac Index" and it's interactive.

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Drivers feel pinch of climbing gas prices -- on page 3; no links; story is everywhere; Keystone XL delayed 4.5 years; policy decision to kill Keystone XL 1.0 one year ago.

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Flu shots offer poor protection to seniors: in WSJ, but link to CBS News
A new government report on the effectiveness of this year's flu vaccine finds dramatic discrepancies in the amount of protection Americans received, with senior citizens being left the most vulnerable.
.... the vaccine offered 58 percent protection against the most common and dangerous H3N2 strain for children ages 6 months to 17 years old, 46 percent protection for adults ages 18 to 49, and 50 percent protection for adults 60 to 64 years of age.
However, for seniors 65 and older, this year's flu shot was found to be only 9 percent effective against the more virulent H3N2 strain...
Tea leaves suggest no sequester; so what's new? No links; multiple stories

ObamaCare and the '29ers -- how the new mandates are already reducing full-time employment; MillionDollarWay noted this back in September, 2012, and I believe it was one of the first sites to talk about the new reality; I've yet to see mainstream media report that the US now has a federally-mandated work week: 30 hours. Folks still do not understand that the IRS determines the number of full-time employees a company has, not the company nor the employer. For hourly workers, on a monthly basis, the number of full-time employees is the total number of hours worked/120 hours.

Maybe more, later.

2 comments:

  1. The Big Mac index of The Economist might also be of interest. (price comparison of Big Mac prices around the world. Basically a comparison of purchasing power. (whether a currency is under or over valued))

    mike

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In fact, that's such a good one (the Big Mac index) and it's interactive as well, I will add it to the body of the post. Thank you.

      Delete

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