Critical View of TTIP: Democracy Vs. Corporations

Boring title, but the TIPP is one of the more significant laws of the last 25 years. Many people note it has the effect of raising corporations over national democracy.

Film Gross and Box Office

Variety is one of the preeminent movie industry trade journals. It publishes entertainment news, articles about trends in the industry and box office results.

Current box office results are here.

Try this link for current and historic (yes! older films) total Box Office takings

Always interesting to see what makes money (not what you think). Plus, shows you importance of international BO. PLUS, that you CAN make millions doing small movies.

More current and historical data.

This site also contains international results.
 
Here are some great stats from the National Theatre Owners' website: includes grosses and average ticket prices over time, among other things.

New Biz Database: IBIS World

So you have to do an industry analysis for your management class?  Now we have the IBIS database that puts everything in one location and has better categories of businesses too!

IBISWorld

Subjects NAICS collection analyzes industries at the 5-digit level offering the latest content on 700 industries. Each report consists of 30 to 40 pages of key statistics and analysis on market characteristics, operating conditions, current and forecast performance, major industry participants and more. Coverage Current Format U.S. Industry reports Type Other Database

We Now Have First Research Industry Analysis Database

First Research - A great one stop location for industry surveys and analysis. 

Contains over 900 Industry Segments, updated constantly with monthly statistics and indicators as well as quarterly trend updates, and State Profiles to monitor monthly employment, business and real estate trends in each of the 50 US states. 

The Sharing Economy

You have heard of these companies: Uber, airbnb, Lfyt and more. If ordinary people just have unused seats in their cars and empty beds in their houses, the thinking goes, why not just rent them out for less than you'd pay for an actual taxi or hotel room?

The services have caught on because we live in a time of shrinking salaries  - thus the need for both cheaper products and services, as well as the need to make money on the side. 

For many Americans, this economic and social innovation has been quite useful. It's an interesting sign of the times and how we are responding to a disguised economics problem.

Links:

The sharing economy is about desperation.
NPR list of links about the sharing economy.

Brady Bonds

There are a few missing years of interest rates from many Latin American countries in the IMF database.  Ever wonder why?

The answer is many emergent economies - mostly Latin American but including some other regions as well - defaulted on their national debt in the early 1980s.  The remaining debt was reorganized, backed by U.S. treasury debt, and sold as a Brady Bonds, after the United States Treasury Secretary.

By the mid to late 1990s, most of the Brady bond debt was repurchased or repackaged so as not to damage investor confidence in these countries.

Recommended for anyone interested in an economic cycles or Latin America.

News articles:


Guide to Brady Bonds
Swapping Out Debt
Brady Bonds Fading
Brady Bonds Dying Out
Brazil Takes Step Away from Brady Bonds

The Hedge Fund That Also Made Cars

Porsche, The Hedge Fund That Also Made Cars

The luxury car manufacturer generated $13.5 BN in pre-tax profit, and sold a record 98,652 automobiles -- a staggering $136K profit per car sold. Even for a luxury brand, the numbers seemed nearly impossible. Upon closer inspection, $11.5 billion dollars of that profit wasn’t from selling cars -- it was from speculating on financial derivatives: Porsche was furtively amassing a sizable position in call options to buy up Volkswagen shares. As a report from the BBC put it, Porsche was “a hedge fund with a carmaker attached.”

In 2008, the car business was good, but the financial engineering business was even better.