Economy

Why Consumer Confidence Is So High

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Why Consumer Confidence Is So High

1/28/21 by NPR

Web player: https://podcastaddict.com/episode/118400314
Episode: https://play.podtrac.com/npr-510325/edge1.pod.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/indicator/2021/01/20210128_indicator_consumer_confidence_-_ready_to_publish.mp3?awCollectionId=510325&awEpisodeId=961744268&orgId=1&topicId=1006&d=542&p=510325&story=961744268&t=podcast&e=961744268&size=8654835&ft=pod&f=510325

The nation is reeling from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Lockdowns and layoffs have devastated the economy. But consumer confidence is higher than expected.

Received a package you didn’t order? It could be a brushing scam – CNN

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Received a package you didn’t order? It could be a brushing scam – CNN

Most people who buy things online just have to worry about their deliveries being delayed or never arriving. But some people are dealing with a different problem altogether: getting weird stuff like hair clippers, face creams and sunglasses they never even ordered at all. The Federal Trade Commission and cyber experts have been warning consumers about these deliveries, which can be part of something known as "brushing" scams. Here's how these scams work: Third-party sellers on Amazon, eBay and other online marketplaces pay people to write fake, positive reviews about their products, or do it themselves. To be able to post the reviews, these so-called "brushers" need to trick the site into making it appear that a legitimate transaction took place. So they'll use a fake account to place gift orders and address them to a random person whose name and address they find online. Then, instead of actually mailing the item for which they want to post a review, the brushers will send a cheap, often lightweight item that costs less to ship. Sending an item (even the wrong one) creates a tracking number, and when the package is delivered, it enables brushers to write a verified review. If you're on the receiving end, you usually aren't charged for the purchase and your real account isn't hacked — but you are left in the dark as to who is repeatedly sending the mystery packages. In many cases, there's no return address. You don't need to worry that anything bad has happened to you or will happen to you if you get a package that might be part of a brushing scam, experts say. But we all need to be concerned about the scams affecting reviews we rely on when buying products.

SunnySlope Homestead had the solution to those non-ordered masks that showed up in his mailbox. The burn barrel was quite happy to burn them with the other burnables.

NPR

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Janet Yellen Confirmed By Senate, Becoming First Woman To Head Treasury : NPR

The Senate quickly confirmed Janet Yellen to be Treasury Secretary Monday, days after she won unanimous backing from both Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee.

Yellen will be the first woman to lead the Treasury Department, and will spearhead the Biden administration's response to the coronavirus recession.

At her confirmation hearing last week, Yellen urged lawmakers to "act big" in response to the pandemic, which has killed more than 400,000 Americans and put millions of people out of work.

It's good to know an adult will be in charge of the economy during these challenging times.

The case for metering

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The case for metering … 🎰

If I had a restaurant it would operate much in this fashion:

  • You would pay the clerk upon entry your budgeted food amount, such as $30.
  • The menu would list food options by an easy to multiply interval by gram or kilogram. For example, if you wanted Marconi and Cheese, you might see that the cost was $2 per 500 grams including all taxes, fees and tips.
  • You could order any amount you wanted (such as 450 grams), and the kitchen would produce a portion based on your request and bill you based on your request (you might get 472 grams due to difficulty of dividing the portion, but you’d pay only $1.80).
  • When you made your order, the amount you the total cost of your order would be displayed on a big LED digits over the table.
  • If you reached your budget, there would be no more food served.
  • If you were below your budget and were you were still hungry, you could always order a side or desert, but your total bill would be prominently displayed on screen until you paid it and left.
  • If you were below your budget while leaving the restaurant, the clerk would pay you back any unspent money.

Such radical transparency and flexibility would force consumers to be responsible on what they ordered, and not get a portion bigger then they could eat or had budgeted for. It would make people thoughtful about their meal choices and how much they bought. There would be far less food waste and fewer people leaving the restaurant, upset that they spent more then they planned to spend.

Too much of America exists today on an “All You Can Eat” rule — either you pay a fixed fee before you enter, or they keep a tab running, and only at the end of the night do they tell you what your tab is. This is incredibly wasteful, it causes people to eat and drink to way too much, and not think about the consequences of their consumption both financially and on environment.

I really enjoy watching consumption and meters, and figuring out how much I can spend out of my allotted budget. Much like programming microprocessors, where memory and CPU speed is limited, it forces me to be thoughtful about my consumption. Indeed, that’s one of the really appealing things about eventually owning an off-grid home — watching the battery bank, my energy consumption in propane, wood, and other easily measurable uses.

A lesson in measuring the federal debt | FRED Blog

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A lesson in measuring the federal debt | FRED Blog

What’s the debt level of the U.S. federal government? The answer isn’t as straightforward as it may seem. A quick search on RE for “federal debtȁ delivers the graph above, which shows the total level of the federal debt, in millions of dollars, at a quarterly frequency since first quarter 1966. The latest figure, as of the writing of this post, corresponds to second quarter 2019 and amounts to over $22 trillion. We can also express the federal debt as a percentage of GP, like so: