PeakTrader.com

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MP:

A couple of interesting factoids from today’s Employment Situation report.

1. The unemployment rate for workers 25 years and older with a bachelor’s degree or higher fell to 3.8% in October, the lowest jobless rate for that group since December 2008, almost four years ago.

2. The employment level for workers classified as “Temporary Help Services” in October (2.54 million) was the highest level of jobs for that group of workers since January 2008, almost five years ago.

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PeakTrader:

It seems, more jobs should be created:

Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”)

“The act requires employers with 50 or more full-time workers to provide health insurance for those workers. At the same time, no company has to buy insurance for part-time employees, defined as those working less than 30 hours a week.

Employers have a huge incentive to hold workers under the 30-hour weekly threshold. The requirement to provide insurance above that acts as a steep employment tax. Companies will try to minimize the tax.

The most vulnerable workers are the poorest and least skilled who can be most easily replaced and for whom insurance costs loom largest. Indeed, the adjustment has already started.”

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Obamacare:

I suspect, some full-time workers will get more overtime, while other full-time workers will be replaced with part-time or temporary workers (i.e. under 30 hours a week).

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http://www.aei-ideas.org/2012/11/two-interesting-factoids-from-today-employment-report/#comments

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PeakTrader:

There’s a difference between wanting to buy or sell and needing to buy or sell.

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Obviously, many people missed classes in Ethics.

Unlike the rolling blackouts in California, which was the result of poor economic policy (California was forced to buy energy from other states, to prevent blackouts, and then sued them for “price gouging”), the storm was a natural disaster.

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It’s amazing some people believe exploitation doesn’t exist, even when it’s happening right under their nose.

And, I guess, they believe only profit motivates people and mobilizes resources in a natural disaster.

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Is it ethical to take advantage of a natural disaster to exploit the misery of people for additional or maximum financial gain?

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http://www.aei-ideas.org/2012/11/anti-price-gouging-laws-are-really-pro-shortage-laws/#comments

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PeakTrader:

So, if a church wanted to buy generators to donate, they’d have to pay $1,100 instead of $700, thanks to “entrepreneurs and speculators.”

I suspect, by the time production ramps-up for generators, the emergency will be over. Then generators will be available for $400, when victims of the natural disaster no longer need them.

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Methinks, the supply is fixed in the short-run, since it takes time to produce more generators.

I guess, you believe the millionaire banker in Manhattan should get everything he needs, while the poor old grandma on Social Security in Staten Island can suffer and die.

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I’ll use an analogy to show why Jon is wrong and Larry is right.

Suppose Jon is on a ship that sinks. He finds himself on a lifeboat with a jug of water and 10 other people on the lifeboat.

Jon says, I’ll sell half of this jug of water to the highest bidder. Methinks offers a million dollars and Jon decides to share the water with Methinks.

Do you believe the other passengers, nine Sumo wrestlers, will sit around and die of thirst, while you and Methinks drink the water?

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http://www.aei-ideas.org/2012/11/shortage-of-generators-in-north-new-jersey-not-on-craigslist/#comments

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PeakTrader:

You just need to be first in line and take up space to buy tickets for $70 and then sell them for $225 quickly.

You can’t do that with a rare coin.

And some people, like Methinks, don’t even believe price-gouging exists.

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What if 10,000 people expected to buy tickets for $70 the first day they went on sale to actually watch the game, learned the tickets were sold out to ticket scalpers, and are now selling for $225.

I doubt many of those 10,000 people would be happy about that.

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Methinks and Morganovich, you only keep proving you have limited, and biased, views how the free market works.

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Methinks, as a buyer (of goods, stocks, etc.), you would unnecessarily give away consumer surplus and take on uncertainty.

I’m glad you’re not managing my portfolio. I’ll stay with Soros.

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Methinks, I cited Soros, an economist, like Buffett, to rub it in.

I manage my own money. Also, I have a track record on this blog, over the past couple of years, making stock predictions, which shows I was correct four out of five times (i.e. on KBH, UNG, USL, TBF, and SPY).

I guess, everyone just has to take your word you’re a great investor.

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http://www.aei-ideas.org/2012/11/ticket-scalping-price-gouging-then-what-about-coin-scalping-nickels-above-face-value/#comments

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