Quote of the Day

“Doing well is the result of doing good. That’s what capitalism is all about.”

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Government to provide unlimited assistance to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

The Treasury Department announced thursday that it would provide unlimited capital to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac until 2012. The two companies, essentially nationalezed by the government last year, will be run by the government “for the rest of President Obama’s current term,” the Washington Post reports.

The Obama administration has defended its actions arguing that it is only supporting the two mortgage giants to ease investor’s fears that the companies will misuse their money.

Want to Weaken Mexican Drug Cartels? Legalize Marijuana.

“In the 40 years since U.S. President Richard Nixon declared a ‘war on drugs,’ the supply and use of drugs has not changed in any fundamental way.” David Luhnow of the Wall Street Journal writes. “The only difference: a taxpayer bill of more than $1 trillion.”

So what would be the best step to take to win an unwinnable war?

Growing numbers of Mexican and U.S. officials say—at least privately—that the biggest step in hurting the business operations of Mexican cartels would be simply to legalize their main product: marijuana. Long the world’s most popular illegal drug, marijuana accounts for more than half the revenues of Mexican cartels.

“Economically, there is no argument or solution other than legalization, at least of marijuana,” said the top Mexican official matter-of-factly. The official said such a move would likely shift marijuana production entirely to places like California, where the drug can be grown more efficiently and closer to consumers. “Mexico’s objective should be to make the U.S. self-sufficient in marijuana,” he added with a grin.

Religiosity and Income

Using factor analysis to derive a measure of religiosity, Martin Paldam (Aarhus University) and Erich Gundlach (Kiel Institute for the World Economy) find that religiosity is negatively correlated with per capita income.

The figure below shows the relation between religiously and income:

Teachers Score Higher Than Other Professionals in Well-Being

According to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, teachers are most happy with their chosen profession:

Quote of the Day

“There is only one way to kill capitalism – by taxes, taxes, and more taxes.”

~ Karl Marx

Probability of a White Christmas

The map below, featured on the Strange Maps blog, illustrates the probability of a a white Christmas across the United States (excluding Alaska and Hawaii).

Interestingly, the southern region, where snow is least likely to fall on Christmas, almost perfectly corresponds with the Missouri Compromise Line.

The Price of Christmas

The cost of Christmas is up 1.8 percent this year, according to PNC.

Thanks to the weak economy in 2009 the PNC Christmas Price Index increased by a modest 1.8 percent compared to last year in the whimsical economic analysis by PNC Wealth Management based on the prices of gifts in the holiday classic, “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”

According to the 26th annual survey, the price tag for the PNC CPI is $21,465.56 in 2009, just $385.46 more than last year. It is the smallest increase since 2002, when the index fell 7.6 percent.

HT: Greg Mankiw

Pay by U.S. counties

The Bureau of Economic Analysis has released a map showing salary changes across the United States:

Compensation grew in over 80 percent of the 3,112 counties in the U.S., as the average annual compensation per job in the U.S. grew by 2.6 percent to $56,116, according to statistics released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). Total compensation of U.S. workers grew 2.3 percent in 2008, as net job losses partially offset compensation growth. Inflation measured by the national price index for personal consumption expenditures, grew 3.3 percent.

Are Peace and Happiness Overrated?

In defending New York’s last-place ranking in the U.S. state happiness index, Harry Lime writes:

We’re from the Harry Lime school. If you’ve seen the film classic “The Third Man,” you will remember that character’s admonition: “In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance.

“In Switzerland they had brotherly love. They had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”

HT: James Choi