Jan 19
Adriano Dutra Teixeira, a Brazilian economist, sent us this photo from a restaurant. As he translates:
Social Responsibility: 50% discount on meal for clients over 70 or bariatric surgery (stomach reduction).
He adds:
I thought it was hilarious! So I wrote a blog post with a microeconomic approach to the promotion, using price discrimination.
I had to chuckle, in part because were finishing up a podcast about commitment devices, in which Levitt offers some bizarre alternatives to bariatric surgery (which we wrote about here), since it is such a drastic commitment.
Further thoughts:
- I wonder what proof, if any, the restaurant requires to prove bariatric surgery a doctors note?
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Jan 19
Banks that consider hitting customers with a new fee should take a hint from Bank of America, which revealed that the bank experienced a 20% increase in account closings after a (now-scrapped) debit card fee became the talk of the nation.
The consumer action that filled the last quarter of 2011 represented quite a hurdle for banks that tried to institute a new fees in a post-Durbin environment.
For Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), the headliner of the debit card fee debacle, plans for a $5 debit card fee led to higher rate of account closings.
“We saw an elevated level of account closings in the quarter elevated from last year fourth quarter, but frankly by, I’d said, about 20% versus last year fourth quarter 2010 to 2011,” said Bank of America chief executive Brian Moynihan during last week’s earnings call.
“Once we pulled [the debit card fee] back, we saw that mitigate,” he added. “So I’d say
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Jan 15
How much information do you give your kids about your finances?
Kids listen. We don’t always think they do, but they pick up on a lot. Getting out of debt has been a major conversation in our house recently, and our kids have had quite a bit to say about it. When we made the decision to get out of debt in 2012, we didn’t even think about what we should tell the kids. It quickly became obvious that the changes in our lifestyle were going to affect them, though – so we decided it was only fair to warn them what was coming.
We are trying to balance giving them enough information without worrying or overhwleming them. Our k
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Jan 13
ASTANA/AKTAU, Kazakhstan, Jan 16 () – Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev described his victory in a weekend election as an endorsement of national unity after unrest by oil workers cast a shadow over a vote that Western monitors said had excluded any genuine opposition.
Two parties, both sympathetic to the president, will for the first time join Nazarbayev’s victorious Nur Otan in parliament after Sunday’s vote to add a veneer of democracy in the face of growing frustration over unequal distribution of oil wealth.
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Jan 12
(GigaOm) While 2011 was a big year for political unrest, another uprising was afoot in the world of content creators and artists. Everywhere you look, artists are taking more control over their own economic well being, in large part because the Internet has enabled them to do so. You see it in all forms of content, from books, to video to music.
A few examples from this year:
e-books: Probably the most active area in large part because there is huge shifts taking place in digital publishing.
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Jan 08
Soup of confusion
By Tony Vidler
One of the intriguing little debates happening in New Zealand financial services in recent times has been the use of new, rather different, acronyms for different types of advisers. Observing the often heated debate got me thinking: who cares? The answer actually surprised me: I do. I care.
The incessant bickering, the unnecessary market noise it creates, the head-shaking that I am sure these types of arguments provoke in the non-adviser parts of the industry, the distraction and amount of wasted energy and resource that gets pushed into little guerilla wars…I care because all of these things limit our chances of success, and are a barrier to creating a better piece of New Zealand.
We have plenty to use in the way of acronyms now.
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