Month: April 2014

Breakdown of Customer’s Credit Card Use in a Small Business

Credit cards and debit cards are the way of the world now; it is how we pay for nearly everything we buy now.

One question that comes up for retail businesses is: Does the type of credit card tell us anything about the customer?

For example, do AMEX users tend to be bigger spenders?  The answer of course depends on the business.  The table below shows the average sale and percentage of monthly sales made by customers of a small restaurant broken down by the type of credit/debit card used.

 

Average Amount of Sale Percentage of Monthly Sales
AMEX  $                    21.88 3%
VISA  $                    19.46 73%
MC  $                    21.00 22%
DISCOVER  $                    22.19 2%

For this business VISA is king. Moreover there is little difference in the size of the average bill of the different types of credit/debit card users.

 

The Economics of Offshore Wind Power @awea

A recent study ‘Offshore Wind Market and Economic’ looks at the economics of the wind market in the U.S. A few of the highlights from the report.:

  • There are approximately four gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind installations worldwide. Nearly all of
    this activity has centered on northwestern Europe, which has led the industry’s development since 1999, but China is gaining market position.
  • Thirty-three announced offshore wind projects lay in varying stages of development in the U.S.,
    primarily along the Atlantic Coast.
  • Much of the expertise gained in the oil and gas sector has been leveraged in the offshore wind sector.  Early turbine installation vessels were jack-up barges repurposed from the oil and gas sector.
  • U.S. offshore wind development faces significant challenges: (1) the relatively high cost of offshore
    wind energy; (2) a lack of infrastructure such as transmission and purpose-built ports and vessels;
    and (3) uncertain and lengthy regulatory processes
  • The development of an offshore wind industry in the U.S. will depend on the evolution of other
    sectors in the economy. Factors within the power sector such as the capacity or price of competing
    power generation technologies will affect the demand for offshore wind. Factors within industries that compete with offshore wind for resources (e.g., oil and gas, construction, and manufacturing) will affect the price of offshore wind power

Three takeaways from a closer look at job openings data for March 2014

The Conference Board Help Wanted Online (HWOL) data series release for March 2014 indicated a number trends worth discussing.

The Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine® Data Series (HWOL) measures the number of new, first-time online jobs and jobs reposted from the previous month for over 16,000 Internet job boards, corporate boards and smaller job sites that serve niche markets and smaller geographic areas.

The Conference Board’s HWOL series measures help wanted advertising, i.e. labor demand. The HWOL data series began in May 2005. The HWOL provides seasonally adjusted data for the U.S., the nine Census regions and the 50 States. The HWOL also provides seasonally adjusted data for occupations and for the 52 largest metropolitan areas..

So what are the trends.  Three take aways

  • Shale drilling influences remain high.   The state of North Dakota, which has a very active Shale play,  had one of the lowest supply to demand ratios (S/D ratio) of 0.46.  That is there were over 2 jobs advertised for each available worker.  Texas and the metro areas in Texas also had high employer demand.
  • California economy is growing again but in spurts. Some metro areas in California such as San Jose had a very high employer demand (1.31 S/D ratio) while others like Riverside had a lot of searchers per job opeing (5.15)
  • STEM rules.  Computer, math, and engineering jobs are in high demand.  The HWOL data shows that many of these occupations have S/D ratios of less than one

Affordable Care Act changes high risk health insurance coverage in Texas

Like many states, up until the passage of the Affordable Care Act, Texas maintained a separate insurance pool for high risk individuals who could not obtain insurance from another source.

In Texas, that pool was known as the Texas Health Insurance Pool.  The Texas Health Insurance Pool insured individuals, such as those with pre-existing conditions, who could not obtain insurance from other sources.   As would be expected, the premiums, which reflect the higher health risk of the insured, offered by the Texas Health Insurance Pool were significantly higher than the rates offered by non-high risk insurance companies.

The Affordable Care Act and the Health Exchanges have changed high risk health insurance in Texas.  The Texas Health Insurance Pool no longer offers insurance policies and refers those individuals to health.gov for enrollment in the Federal Insurance Market system.

So how do the rates compare?  The rates under the Affordable Care Act are generally lower than the rates offered by the old Texas Health Insurance Pool.  For instance, consider a 53 year old, male smoker who had pre-existing health issues.  If this person were to select a gold level plan under the Affordable Health Care Act, which does not take the pre-existing conditions into account, they could expect to pay about $850 a month.  The same person would have paid about $1,500 a month under the old Texas Health Insurance Pool.