I have been hearing more and more about trading / auction websites that provide a secondary market in high-end sneakers. Sneaker enthusiasts try to buy anticipated shoe models at retail and then re-sell them for high prices when the shoes have sold out. Sure, this sounds odd but the market for high-end sneakers is now … Continue reading Are expensive sneakers really an investment?
Redefining middle age
The ways that people envision and plan their lives start with concepts about the "natural" stages of life. These concepts change over time, though. As people live longer, new ideas are emerging about how to characterize mid-life in developed economies. More people are thinking in terms of a new stage of life, the second middle … Continue reading Redefining middle age
Relationship between wealth and lifespan
It is not surprising that wealthier people live longer than poor people, but the degree of the difference is incredible. People in the 1% of households with the highest incomes in the United States have male and female life expectancy that is 15 years and 10 years (respectively) greater than for the 1% of households … Continue reading Relationship between wealth and lifespan
Conformity and Consumption
A vast array of analysis suggests that Americans are making poor financial decisions that have the potential to lead to extreme future regret. We are consuming way too much and saving too little. One of the best ways to understand why we are acting this way is societal pressure to conform. On one hand, we … Continue reading Conformity and Consumption
An optimist’s view of the future of work
Today's workers face challenges that previous generations did not. First, a diminishing fraction of company earnings goes to workers. Second, real job security is largely a thing of the past. Third, employers provide less generous benefits than they used. Workers bear an increasing share of the costs of healthcare and traditional pensions have been replaced … Continue reading An optimist’s view of the future of work
Job Clustering
The industrial revolution created an enormous economic shift in which work became highly centralized. People moved to cities to work in factories and office buildings. The tendency for jobs to aggregate in small geographic areas was required for large-scale production of goods as well as for large-scale research efforts. The growth of the financial sector … Continue reading Job Clustering
The evolution of personal finance
The ways that people earn money, spend, borrow, and invest are all changing quickly. We are experiencing the greatest changes in personal finance since the start of the industrial revolution. To thrive in the new economy, people need to know far more and be disciplined and proactive in managing their finances. In this post, I … Continue reading The evolution of personal finance
Understanding stock buybacks
The increase in stock buybacks is an important trend. This post explores the basics of buybacks and some of the controversy they inspire. Companies must choose how best to use their earnings. They can pursue new growth opportunities, they can pay dividends or they can purchase their own stock, a stock buyback (also referred to … Continue reading Understanding stock buybacks
There are (at least) two distinct gig economies
There is little question that people working in non-traditional employment (freelancers, contractors, other forms of self-employment) make up a substantial and growing fraction of the working population. McKinsey estimates that about 20%-30% of Americans and Europeans perform independent work. Some estimates for the U.S. are even higher. There are projections that as much as half … Continue reading There are (at least) two distinct gig economies
Are college return-on-investment calculations meaningful?
With the rapid increases in costs of higher education, there has been a related effort to calculate whether college is worth the cost. One well-known site, built by Payscale.com, has created a database of 20-year earnings for graduates of a vast array of U.S. colleges and universities and compared these to costs. From these data, … Continue reading Are college return-on-investment calculations meaningful?
Geoff Considine on Finance and Economics 