Homines libenter quod volunt credunt
Posted in Fun Facts on Feb 24th, 2016
The population of the United States: 319 million The population of the largest Northern European navel, Sweden: 9.8 million The population of Denmark: 5.7 million The population of Finland: 5.5 million The population of Norway: 5,2 million All together these are the size of Texas. Or to put it another way, Sweden is about the […]
Posted in Fun Facts on Feb 23rd, 2016
Since 1989 the annual growth of real GDP per working age population has been higher in Japan than in the United States. (HT to the great Tim Taylor)
The weekly earnings premium (in dollars, not percentages) enjoyed by graduates of professional and PhD programs over graduates with just a Bachelors is now larger than the earnings premium enjoyed by BA recipients over high school graduates. In percentage terms, the graduate degrees enjoy a 45% premium over BA recipients who in turn enjoy a 65% […]
Posted in Fun Facts on Sep 23rd, 2015
US CO2 emissions from energy production today are no higher than they were 18 years ago. Adjusting for energy produced and GDP produced we are seeing the beginnings of a decoupling. One would hope this is viewed as good news.
Posted in Competition, Economic Illiteracy, Fun Facts on Aug 28th, 2015
What was the (net) profit margin for Walmart in the most recent quarter for which I can fund data? In other words, for every $100 of goods that Walmart sells, how much profit do they “take home?” My bet is that if you asked a typical person they would think the number would be very […]
Posted in Fun Facts on Jul 22nd, 2015
Was perusing river volume data the other day and was very well surprised to learn that the Colorado River, perhaps the most important river in the West, does not rank even among the twenty largest American rivers in terms of annual volume flowing through it.
Posted in Entrepreneurs, Fun Facts on Jun 9th, 2015
1. “Forest carbon sequestration associated with increased harvests for bioenergy would be offset by new forest growth given sufficient time.” In other words, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that matters for climate change is cumulative, so it doesn’t matter whether we sequester (or cut) carbon today versus out in the future. This […]
Posted in Fun Facts on Jun 4th, 2015
Of the 37 solar panel producers rated by this index, a Chinese manufacturer rated the cleanest. By the way, I am looking forward to the day when labeling activists demand that solar panels have their carbon emissions, energy and water footprints labeled on them. I read a scientist who indicated that coffee was a natural source of […]
Posted in Fun Facts on Apr 14th, 2015
The consolidated financial position of the Federal Reserve system indicates that the Federal Reserve Banks combined have equity of about $57 billion on a balance sheet of $4.5 trillion. That represents a leverage ratio of 78:1.
The annual operating budget of my university is about double the size of the annual operating budget of my county.
