MetaFilter posts tagged with dollar

Fat Profits

Pater Aletheias — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 14:01:22 -0800

"After a period of collective indigestion induced by the 2004 documentary Super Size Me and the 2001 book Fast Food Nation and its subsequent film adaptation, much of the industry is returning to its traditional customers—men—and its traditional food—meat—served up in ever-greater quantities. Although CKE's signature behemoths—the Carl's Jr. Double Six Dollar Burger and Hardee's Monster Thickburger, both introduced in 2004—out-calorie all comers, Burger King narrowed the gap with its Triple Whopper With Cheese (2005); Wendy's unveiled the Baconator (2007)...and Taco Bell awakened the industry to new possibilities with its 2006 campaign, which urged customers to enjoy a "fourth meal" each day."

Dollar for Dollar?

jabberjaw — Tue, 20 May 2008 08:59:45 -0800

Stemming from a lawsuit that has gone on for several years, a recent Court of Appeals ruled that the U.S. government must make bills with distinguishable tactile features to benefit the blind. While the U.S. government disagrees, the judges say: "The government might as well argue that, since handicapped people can crawl on all fours or ask for help from strangers, there's no need to make buildings wheelchair accessible." Not all blind people agree with the decision. A link to the court decision.

money can't buy happiness? well, actually it might.

krautland — Mon, 05 May 2008 09:37:17 -0800

money can't buy happiness? well, actually it might (NYT). "owning an iPod doesn’t make you happier, because you then want an iPod Touch. Relative income — how much you make compared with others around you — mattered far more than absolute income." That's what the old Easterlin paradox of "money can't buy happiness" is about. Last week, at the Brookings Institution in Washington, two economists presented a rebuttal of the paradox. They argue that money indeed tends to bring happiness, even if it doesn’t guarantee it. David Leonhardt has a nice writeup in the NYT. This post just has to be dedicated to jessamyn.

Funny Money

specialk420 — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 23:51:32 -0800

Super funny money turning up on the world stage
Along with pranks going on in the gulf this week, some funny stuff going on with US Currency as well - Perhaps part of the explanation of the seemingly endless run on gold?

Liberty Mint Raid

Sam.Burdick — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 11:00:28 -0800

Secret Service and FBI raid Liberty Mint, arguments of counterfeiting versus constitutional right to commerce ensue! I caught this on NPR this morning. It seems the US Mint doesn't like alternative currencies circulating within the US. The organization in question wants to abolish the Federal Reserve and the US mint and claims that both are the cause for the excessive inflation. At the risk of sounding shrill and/or sarcastic; these folks amuse me. The basic premise of their mint seems to be one of tax dodging and they love Ron Paul so much that they released currency with his face on it. This has been done before by less.... professional... people. The Liberty Mint seems to feel that the only constitutional and moral solution to our current economic is to print money actually backed by real valuable metals. And they claim that the US Mint making money is unconstitutional despite some evidence to the contrary (scroll down on last link). I'm pretty sure I don't buy their arguments. But at least they weren't actually counterfeiting... or so it seems. Were they violating the constitution or laws of this land? Or are they patriots? hmm...

They see dollar fallin', they hatin'

azazello — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 06:41:51 -0800

Is Jay-Z signaling a recession? There is something quite alarming on the recently released “Blue Magic” music video ... it wasn’t sex, drugs, violence or explicit language that shocked my conscience. It was the Euros. The Jay-Z video flashed large stacks of $500 Euros. When I start seeing rap stars flashing euros instead of U.S. dollars, I know our economy is in trouble.

Your Bottom Dollar

chuckdarwin — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 05:06:24 -0800

The pound has hit its highest level against the dollar in 26 years.

Cui bono?

Pastabagel — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 09:41:30 -0800

On Tuesday, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 0.5%. Wall Street aggressively demanded the cut to stop the sub-prime mortgage contagion from triggering a credit crisis among large US and foreign investment banks and the collapse of their over-leveraged hedge funds, which ultimately threatened to drag the US economy into recession. The market rallied this week in response to the Fed's move. But there is no free lunch. Oil rallied also, to an all-time high of $81/bbl. The rate cut shattered the dollar, sending it to new lows against the Euro and to parity with the Canadian dollar. The falling dollar puts pressure on China, whose dollar-pegged currency has attracted the ire of many US politicians, causing China to threaten the US with the "nuclear option" of diversifying its foreign currency reserves away from the dollar. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia refuses to cut its interest rates in lockstep with the US for the first time ever, signaling that it may break its long standing dollar peg as well. In other words, foreign investors who currently own roughly 50% of the publicly-owned portion of the US national debt may flee the US bond markets. Result? We'll probably slide into recession anyway. But there is a silver lining: it turns out that many of those large investment banks and hedge funds were making far more money than anyone thought all along. Confused? Some background: Currency carry trade - how currencies are related to one another How interest rates, inflation, exchange rates, and trade deficits are interrelated How interest rates and bonds are related Peviously 1 2 3 4

Canadian Money becomes Real Money

SansPoint — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 09:39:01 -0800

Parity - The Canadian Dollar is (almost) at equal value to the American Dollar for the first time since 1976.

I'd buy that for a dollar

mwhybark — Tue, 22 May 2007 18:55:45 -0800

My Million Dollar Ideas "Ever since I thought up of the basic idea of the World Wide Web in 1990 and didn't write it down, I thought I should start documenting these more." Jon Konrath takes notes on certain of his harebrained ideas. Examples to date: the pneumatic-tube-food-delivery theme restaurant 'Tubes,' America's next hit gameshow 'Heads or Tails,' and several ideas that combine the concepts of American status-seeking image-consciousness, SUVs, car conversion kits, and hybrids.