Months of unseasonably warm weather have given the economy quite a boost: Mother Nature has been pointed to as the reason for increased spending on construction, restaurants, and home-improvement supplies, among other goods and services. More people have been golfing as well. In ski towns where the local economy is heavily dependent on snow, however, the winter of 2011-2012 has been a disaster, and unemployed and underemployed resort workers have grown increasingly desperate.
California tends to get a lot of the attention in terms of rising gas prices. The state does have the highest prices in the Lower 48, now averaging $4.35 per gallon, up from $3.83 in mid-February. But over the last five or so weeks, gas prices have increased more in dozens of U.S. cities outside [...]
A company called ValueAppeal has been blanketing homeowners in Connecticut, Ohio, and New Jersey, among other places, with claims that it can help them appeal their home revaluations and reduce their property taxes—for a fee of $99. Is the service worth the money?
It’s hard to claim that downhill skiing is remotely inexpensive. Colorado’s Steamboat Ski Area is noteworthy this year because its top price for a one-day lift ticket is “just” $99. In other words, it hasn’t crossed the $100 threshold like other Colorado ski resorts such as Vail, Telluride, Breckenridge, and Aspen have. For the month [...]
“If you were running any other business, you would say this is ridiculous.”
With prepackaged food, somebody’s got to pay for the packaging—and that somebody is the consumer. But shoppers can bypass the packaging and marketing costs built into most food items by hitting bulk food dispensers—which now not only sell staples like coffee, beans, pasta, and grains, but also goods you wouldn’t think to buy without packaging, [...]
All of those spreadsheets, business models, and marketing ideas you’ve been poring over in your parent’s basement—perhaps between video games and bong hits—may have been a waste of time.
The economy has had its ups and downs—OK, mostly downs of late. Here, some statistics showing the economic fallout on all sorts of things, including cheap booze sales (they’re up), military recruits with college degrees (also up), and excuses for getting out of jury duty (way up).
How many residents of Boulder, Colorado, does it take to screw in a light bulb? 100,000: Taxpayers foot the bill for teams of techies to go door-to-door and caulk windows, swap old light bulbs for compact fluorescent ones, and install programmable thermostats, all in the name of energy efficiency. Should saving energy—and money—be this difficult [...]
