Investment bankers have bad sex lives

Harvard Business Review study polled,

"high-earning professionals with “extreme” jobs to examine how their work affected their private lives. The results showed that roughly half of those polled felt that their work interferes with a satisfying sex life, and 46 percent said their job negatively impacted their spousal relationships.

An “extreme job,” by definition, involved working at least 60 hours per week. “Extreme” workers also tended to follow unusual and unpredictable schedules, travel frequently, and hold responsibility for profit and loss. "

Force of China's impact on U.S. grows

Another of many articles that you'll see these days showing the implications of our massive trade deficit.

China's Impact on U.S.

Will more money make you happier?

Recent research suggests that the answer is 'not necessarily'.
From the articles:

"The belief that high income is associated with good mood is widespread but mostly illusory," the researchers wrote. "People with above-average income are relatively satisfied with their lives but are barely happier than others in moment-to-moment experience, tend to be more tense, and do not spend more time in particularly enjoyable activities."

This raises the question: If more money won't make us much happier, what will? Here are four pointers.
• Keep your commute short. Tempted to use your latest pay raise to buy a big house in a distant suburb? Don't do it.
• Choose time over money. Cutting back the hours you work will likely leave you happier, even if it means less pay.
• Think carefully about how you spend your dollars. While a new car may not boost your happiness for long, maybe a trip to Europe would.
• Use your leisure time wisely. Surveys show that leisure is better for your happiness than work. But much also depends on how you spend your leisure time.

Money and Happiness
Link between Income and Happiness

U.S. government deficits are unsustainable

A pretty bleak report by the head of the Congressional Budget Office

A quote from the report:

"The basic challenge is well-known. If current trends continue and current policies remain in place, federal spending will outstrip revenues in coming decades, even if tax reductions enacted over the past few years expire, as scheduled, at the end of 2010. Deficits will increase sharply, debt held by the public will grow faster than the economy, and interest payments will soar, undermining the government’s finances and weakening the economy.

In short, the nation’s fiscal policy is on an unsustainable path, posing a long-term threat to the well-being of the American people and the country’s status in the world."

What I am reading these days

Fortune's Formula by William Poundstone. A fascinating book about a few brilliant minds who turned their considerable brain power to making money in blackjack and investing.

A review from Amazon.com:

In 1961, MIT mathematics professor Ed Thorp made a small Vegas fortune by "counting cards"; his 1962 bestseller, Beat the Dealer, made the phrase a household word. With Claude Shannon, the father of information theory, Thorp next conquered the roulette tables. In this prosaic but fascinating cultural history, Poundstone (How Would You Move Mt. Fuji?) tells not only what they did but how they did it. For roulette, Poundstone shows, Thorp and Shannon used a betting scheme invented by Shannon's Bell Labs colleague John Kelly, eventually applying Kelly's technique to investing, resulting in long-term records of extraordinary return with low risk. (Thorp revealed the secret in 1966's Beat the Market, but investors proved harder to persuade than blackjack players.) Many other characters figure into Poundstone's entertaining saga: a forgotten French mathematician, two Nobel Prize–winning economists who declared war on the Kelly criterion, Rudy Giuliani, assorted mobsters, and winners and losers in all types of investing and gambling games. The subtitle is not a tease: the book explains and analyzes Kelly's system for turning small advantages into great wealth. The system works, but requires unusual amounts of patience, discipline and courage. The book is good fun for the rest of us.

Fortune's Formula

It's easy to become a millionaire

Those of you who have taken my class should already understand the power of compounding. Here's yet another article that illustrates how easy it is for young people to become millionaires.

It's that easy

Gen Y entrepreneurship

Interesting trend towards entrepreneurship for Generation Y'ers. Probably a result of the low barriers to entry due to the internet.

Gen Y makes a mark and their imprint is entrepreneurship

How much does Sony lose on each PS3?

$240. They must be trying to make back the money on software sales royalties and trying to lower their manufacturing costs through economies of scale. They're also trying to push their Blu-ray technology so that it will be the next standard in high definition movies.

Sony loss on each PS3

More views on inequality

From writer, Arnold Kling:

Diana Furchtgott-Roth writes,

Last year Americans in the lowest income quintile spent an average of $11,247 per person, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, compared with $15,843 for middle income quintiles, and $28,272 for the top quintile. The top group is spending only 2.5 times as much as the bottom group, and 1.8 times as much as the middle classes...

The lowest quintile is spending 14% more in 2005 than it was in 1985, the second quintile 16%, the third quintile 11%, the fourth 13%, and the top quintile is spending an additional 16%.

Just as a reminder, if you want to measure inequality, the ranking of disparities is:

1. financial wealth
2. annual earnings
3. lifetime earnings
4. consumer spending

That is, if you look at financial wealth or one year's earnings, you will see lots of disparity. If you look at consumer spending, you will see much less disparity.

Proof that imposing taxes can reduce externalities

Study finds an innovative way to decrease motorists' driving and the subsequent externalities from pollution and traffic congestion.

Tolls could cut congestion

Views on economic inequality in the U.S.

Two different views.

Watch how they shop

Cool-headed, soft-hearted economics

Is the SF housing market bubble proof?

Apparently.

Bubble proof housing markets

How rich are you?

Ever curious to see how you stack up against the world's wealthiest people? Ever feel really poor? You might be surprised by the results from this calculator.

The global rich list

Good news for college grads

Looks like the job market for college grads is looking really good.

"Employers expect to hire 17.4% more new college graduates in 2006 and 2007 than in 2005 and 2006, according to a new survey by the Bethlehem, Pa.-based National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).

Signing bonuses range from $1,000 to $10,000, with the average at $3,568. And employers reported plans to boost their starting salary offers by 4.6% over last year, nearly a full percentage point higher than increases for the classes of 2006 and 2005."

Jobs for college grads plentiful