Films on Demand Database

If you are a visual learner, check out our Films on Demand database....This database features short educational films on a variety of subject, including business related topics.

Business law, management, marketing and technology are just some of your options. Go to the database and choose business and economics by subject.

Bailout: An Inside Account Of How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street

This is a chilling tale of how our system favors powerful interests.

Bailout: An Inside Account Of How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street

Here's a good review from the Economist:

excerpt:

"Mr Barofsky was asked to serve as the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) by the outgoing Bush administration. He was an inspired choice, a tough New York prosecutor who had led fraud cases against futures brokers that hid losses and predatory mortgage lenders. Earlier in his career, Mr Barofsky charged dozens of Colombian Marxist guerrillas, narrowly avoiding assassination in Bogota. But he was not interested in leaving a job he loved to fight turf-obsessed bureaucrats. Mr Barofsky accepted the assignment only after his boss made an earthy appeal to his sense of patriotism: "Who else is going to protect the public from what could be a $700 billion clusterfuck of fraud?"

Indeed, Mr Barofsky reports that no one in the Treasury Department and almost nobody at the Federal Reserve seemed concerned that some might try to exploit the government's largesse. Whenever Mr Barofsky tried to ensure that banks were using TARP funds to make loans--the stated purpose of the programme--he was told that it would be impossible because "all money is green". Yet the bankers themselves had no problem telling journalists how they planned to use the cheap capital to buy competitors or hoard cash for a rainy day. Mr Barofsky's team was able to add safeguards to some of the Treasury's worst ideas only thanks to pressure from Congress and the media."

New Database: Import Genius Tracks Shipments

Import Genius

International trade database providing detailed information on ocean freight shipments entering the United States with names of American importers for almost any product, descriptions of what they're buying and the contact information for their suppliers overseas. Also includes shipping in and out of several Latin American countries and imports into India.

Search by product, country of origin, port, bill of lading and more.

 

Apartment Rents in San Marcos (or elsewhere)

The US Census Factfinder can break down the distribution of monthly apartment rents for you as well by city or zip code. For example, find the distribution of rents in San Marcos here.

You have to scroll down a fair amount of text and then you'll see it.

RAND Database

RAND Database has a lot of economic statistics about the state of Texas. I've used it to find average wages by industry and the state, exports out of Texas's ports, average prices of various products, bankruptcies and more,

There's also farm data in there like the value and changing inventory of crops, as well as net income and a lot more things.

In addition, there is a lot of information about health, demographics, traffic, pollution, quality of life, the environment and crime - among many other variables.

Getting Economic Statistics While The Govt is Shut Down

Perhaps you’ve heard that the government is closed right now.  If you go to statistical websites such as the bureau of economic analysis or the census, you’ll be told that the site is currently not operating.
Well, there’s a work around for this that will probably get you 98% of the data that you need.

There's FRED – the Federal Reserve’s online stats service.  Only data published in the last few days won’t be available 

Also: GDP, employment, military expenditures, research and development, wages, industry composition, the environment, capital investment, and many more statistics can be found in:

Marketline
Passport

The video, while organized around the concept of international statistics works just fine for the United States.

Janet Yellen's Articles

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that Janet Yellen will probably be the next head of the Federal Reserve.

I did a search on her publications and these are two of the most cited articles.

"The Fair Wage-Effort Hypothesis and Unemployment." Quarterly Journal of Economics 105.2 (1990): 255-83. 

"Efficiency Wage Models of Unemployment." American Economic Review 74.2 (1984): 200-5.

Why the Next Keynes is Unlikely to Have a PhD

Interview with British economist John Kay, in which he states that the next Keynes is unlikely to have a PhD.

One of the great emerging narratives of the financial crisis, was how unprepared mainstream economics was to intellectually grapple with the crisis.  In fact, many would suggest that it remains so. This is the age of double down, not experimentation, new thinking and reform.

Kay’s message for actuaries is that we should distrust our models – what is not in our models is often more important than what is. And we should develop narratives of what might happen rather than relying on spuriously accurate mathematical projections based on past experience. Equally, we should not blindly follow methodologies implied by financial economics - See more at: http://www.theactuary.com/features/2013/04/the-mild-mannered-prophet-of-doom/#sthash.TYTIGras.dpuf

Kay’s message for actuaries is that we should distrust our models – what is not in our models is often more important than what is. And we should develop narratives of what might happen rather than relying on spuriously accurate mathematical projections based on past experience. Equally, we should not blindly follow methodologies implied by financial economics - See more at: http://www.theactuary.com/features/2013/04/the-mild-mannered-prophet-of-doom/#sthash.TYTIGras.dpuf

Book Review: The Chastening

The Chastening: Inside the Crisis That Rocked The Global Financial System and Humbled the IMF is a very good book that will help you understand the modern, interconnected global economy. There are complex relationships between monetary policy, emerging markets, and foreign direct investment.

This book is about how the crisis of (mostly) Asian currencies in the late 1990s (Russia and Brazil also figured in this) threatened to bring down the international system of money and capital. The International Monetary Fund intervened, with controversial results. Were they helping or seeking to preserve a privileged status quo? Both?

The Chastening is another opportunity to learn about the nature of money, the IMF and international currency valuation. But I think I also learned a lot about the perils of too much foreign investment and unrealistic expectations in emerging markets.

As an American, you haven't had to learn too much about how currency devaluation, capital flight or exchange rates can rock your world. Welcome to the planet, friends!

If you're looking for clues for what could be coming to a trash-strewn, zombie-infested street near you, pick up this book.

Tourism Industry

I have noticed an uptick in the number of people asking for this topic, so I ordered a boatload more books on the topic. I think, judging by the titles, they will be pretty good. Here's the e-books on tourism and here's the regular category.

Check out the related subjects and definitely do keyword searches as well.

Lexis Nexis Searches Blogs

In a world where journalism often isn't asking the tough questions or writing intelligent thought pieces, there is the blogger.

Go to Lexis Nexis and search blogs on the News box to the left.

Zero Hedge is a good one, authored by the mysteriously prolific Tyler Durden.

Occupational Outlook Handbook

The Occupational Outlook Handbook now lives here on the BLS website.



Get ideas for jobs, research median salaries and whether or not a profession is growing.