Nobrainer’s Think Tank

I don’t know about y’all, but the DC television market is being bombarded with ads from AT&T touting the potential benefits of its merger with T-Mobile. “An Engine for Job Creation” they say. “This will create an estimated 55,000 – 96,000 new jobs from AT&T’s additional infrastructure investment, according to an analysis from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI),” they say. It’s funny, because that’s not quite what the EPI says. EPI “projects that AT&T’s proposed purchase of T-Mobile could plausibly create an additional 55,000 to 96,000 job-years of work.” Perhaps I’m being picky, but I think there’s a notable difference between what AT&T says the EPI said and what the EPI said.

In the relatively brief period that I have known about World Market, I have found some great values (a particular, very-sturdy kitchen cart that was over 50% off comes to mind), but I know this is no deal.

I happen to consider this wine a great deal; it’s one of my favorites. $7.99 ain’t so bad. However, I know I can regularly pick this up at my friendly, neighborhood Trader Joe’s for $6.99. Thank you, World Market, but no thanks.

Per USA Today, Obama “stressed that ‘no one party will be able to dictate where we go from here.’” That’s good to know, but is he implying that, at least at some times over the last two years, the single party in charge, was dictating? If he is implying that, he is correct, but it still seems like something odd to say.

I also found this paragraph to be cringeworthy:

[Obama] is seeking “the right balance” between new regulations to make sure that companies are treating customers fairly, and “making absolutely clear that the only way America succeeds is if businesses are succeeding.”

I wouldn’t exactly say the business environment is great right now. So it shows the extent of the Great One’s rectal-cranial inversion that he is even worried about this balance at this point. Heaven forbid we end up with lower unemployment at the risk of some of us facing an overdraft fee.

Creative accounting…

Congressional budget scorekeepers say a Medicare fix that Democrats included in earlier versions of their health care bill would push it into the red…

The so-called doc fix was part of the original House bill. Because of its high cost, Democrats decided to pursue it separately. Republicans say the cost should not be ignored. Congress has usually waived the cuts to doctors year by year.

And rosy assumptions:

There has been a lot of talk lately about the CBO scoring of the health bill. Here is one thing people should understand about their numbers: When they estimate the budget impact of a bill like this, they assume the path of GDP is unchanged.

Recall that the bill raises taxes substantially. Some of these tax hikes are the explicit tax increases on capital income to pay for the insurance subsidies. Some of these tax hikes are the implicit marginal rate increases from the phase-out of the insurance subsidies as a person’s income rises. Both of these would be expected to reduce GDP growth.

Indeed, to be very wonkish about it, these tax changes could have especially large GDP effects. Some people like to argue that taxes have small GDP effects because income and substitution effects offset each other. But if you give someone a subsidy and then phase it out, both the income and substitution effects work in the direction of reducing work effort.

While washing my hands in a McDonald’s restroom the other day, it dawned on me why so many places are switching to foamy hand soap. I reckoned it isn’t happening because the foamy soap is generally nicer, it’s that it induces people to use less soap and thus saves companies money. And as a google search revealed, I was correct, but the advantages don’t stop there.

From WiseGeek

For manufacturers, the advantage of foam soap is that they do not need to make as much soap. They argue that foam soap is also easier to lather, encouraging people to use soap properly, and that since many people overuse soap, foam soap dispenses a more appropriate amount of soap for basic hand washing needs. Foam soap is also thinner, making the dispensers less prone to clogging.

From Parrish-Supply

You’ll get significantly more Handwashings out of the Foam Soap System than traditional liquid soap dispensers. Foam Soap combined with the dispenser will create a powerful cleaning system. Air is infused into the soap as it’s dispensed creating a rich, luxurious lather. Just ONE push delivers a generous portion of foam. The volume of lather feels so satisfying in users’ hands that they don’t need a second push.

As the chart shows, you actually get more than two-times as many pushes per unit volume with foam soap. So you not only end up with a product that’s more appealing to the customer, but one that uses less to begin with and encourages still encourages people to be less wasteful. What an invention!

From NYT:

If large majorities of Americans favor increased government support for clean energy, as polls suggest, why are so many people reluctant to back such programs when it comes to paying extra themselves?

I won’t call that a stupid question. But I will call supremely ignorant any adult who can’t figure out the answer in under 2 milliseconds.