Results for “markets in everything”
1885 found

Markets in everything, gypsy threat point edition

by  Tyler Cowen in

I do not read Italian, but Stefano offers me the following summary:

Gypsies exploit their bad reputation to make money. That's what happened in the provinces of Macerata, Ascoli Piceno and Ancona. A group of Gypsies coming from Veneto figured out an original way to swindle real estate agencies. Three of the Gypsies would show up at construction sites driving an expensive car and wearing nice clothes; they would get in touch with the sales office and and put down a down payment in cash for an apartment, sight unseen. After a couple of days they would then show up with their entire families, obstreperous and in tatters. This would trigger an immediate buy-back of the sale contract: the real estate agency would promptly pay back three times the amount of the down payment to get the apartment back (an apartment that the Gypsies did not in fact really want). Real estate agencies reporting this scheme to the police set in motion an investigation that resulted in three of the Gypsies being indicted for fraud. Their loot has been estimated around 300k Euros.

Here is the article.

Insurance markets in everything

by  Tyler Cowen in

Jared Sylvester writes me:

Earlier this month you
made one of your "Markets in Everything" posts on Marginal Revolution
about Hyunadi's program to buy back cars from people who lose their
jobs.  I thought you might be interested to know that Jos A Bank is now
offering to refund the price of a new suit in the same circumstances,
or in the case of the self-employed, in the case of a bankruptcy
filing.  You can find the details here:
http://www.josbank.com/Templates/riskfreesuit.tem

Markets in everything China fact of the day

by  Tyler Cowen in

I enjoyed this one and I wonder what the sequel will look like:

Drawing inspiration from a best-selling Japanese manga adaptation of Das Kapital, Chinese theater producers are planning to bring Marx's masterpiece to the stage.

Yang Shaolin, general manager of the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center, told the Wen Hui Bao that, together with Fudan University economics professor Zhang Jun and other experts, he is preparing a dramatization of Das Kapital. They've already decided on a director: He Nian, who directed the stage adaptation of the hit martial-arts spoof My Own Swordsman (武林外传).

He Nian says he will combine elements from animation, Broadway musicals, and Las Vegas stage shows to bring Marx's economic theories to life as a trendy, interesting, and educational play.

I thank Robert C. for the pointer.

Markets in everything, until they are cancelled

by  Tyler Cowen in

Is this good or bad for the macroeconomy?:

In Los Angeles County, cities are buying federal stimulus funds from
each other at deep discounts, turning what was supposed to be a
targeted infusion of cash into a huge auction.

In two cases $500,000 in stimulus funding was selling in the range of $310K to $325K.  (What does that tell us?)  But wait, the Los Angeles County MTA has now cancelled these swaps.

I thank Jerry Brito and Todd Myers for the pointer.

Markets in everything: home tending

by  Tyler Cowen in

CW McCullagh sends me this:

Home tending is the practice of allowing someone to live in a home
while it's for sale. Real estate experts say this strategy helps sell homes a
lot faster than vacant homes. It's also a great way for some Houstonians during
these tough times to stretch their dollar.

The first house we saw had a gourmet kitchen, an elaborate chandelier
and a grand master bath. The asking price? Be ready to shell out $794,000.

"The house is mine, while I am here," said home tender Eurika
Coleman.

Coleman tends a River Oaks home. She pays $750 a month plus utilities.

"I am saving money, I am a recession sheik chick," laughed
Coleman.

Coleman started home tending about eight years ago and since then has
lived in lavish homes for a monthly fee.

Markets in everything, if this works it will change the world edition

by  Tyler Cowen in

Cut a deal with anyone, using a website to record the terms and conduct the negotiations.

For instance perhaps (ha) you can convince your wife to turn down the thermostat in the house in return for taking out the recycling bin every Monday.  Or, more promisingly, maybe I can promise to Bryan Caplan that I won't make fun of his naive realism in return for his eating Pho with us twice a year.  This site gives you a handy written record of the agreement.

Further below you read about training: "Make a sample deal with our interns."

The motto of this very ambitious site is: "Asynchronous Negotiation Favors the Underdog"

Insurance markets in everything

by  Tyler Cowen in

Hyundai is gaining market share:

Besides the Genesis, Hyundai is also benefiting from a novel scheme,
launched in January, in which it offers to buy back cars from customers
who lose their jobs within a year of their purchase. (The company
essentially offers a smaller discount and then uses the money to buy an
insurance policy.) This has proved so successful in stimulating sales
that General Motors said on March 3rd that it was considering a similar
scheme.

Ukraine markets in everything

by  Tyler Cowen in

Better than nothing:

A new internet-only exchange, the so-called Deposit Exchange, has
opened in Ukraine. It enables people whose bank deposits have been
frozen in banks of questionable solvency to sell the money in those
deposits at a discount. The buyers of the frozen deposits, although
they cannot withdraw the money, can use the full value of the deposits
to cover the value of loans issued by the banks for home, car and land
purchases on which customers have defaulted, and thereby take
possession of the repossessed property. Currently the discounts on
buying a frozen deposit are in the range 10-34% (Lenta.ru, in Russian).

I thank Matthew Bown for the pointer.

Markets in everything, club good edition

by  Tyler Cowen in

Matt S. points me to the following:

Matthew and Michelle Reed, along with their
2-year-old son and newborn baby boy, are the first of what could be a
stream of people to move to Dothan [Alabama] under a program that offers Jewish
families as much as $50,000 to relocate and get involved with the
city's only synagogue, Temple Emanu-El.

A
family that's been part of the reform congregation for decades funded
the $1 million resettlement program and launched it last year, fearing
the congregation would dwindle and die without an infusion of new blood.