No Tax Liability for GE

GE made several billion dollars this past year. They are (or used to be) an American company. They paid zero American taxes on those billions of dollars. Should they?

Listen to this story at APM Marketplace

Turns out that GE is not the only "American" company avoiding U.S. taxes...Zug, Switzerland has been a tax haven for many multinationals (multibillionationals?). Lesley Stahl did this report for 60 minutes.

Inflation App / App Inflation | Economy 4.0 with David Brancaccio | Marketplace from American Public Media

Inflation App / App Inflation | Economy 4.0 with David Brancaccio | Marketplace from American Public Media

this story discusses Inflation and the market basket of goods used to calculate it. Apps are in, Pork shoulder is out...in your opinion, what else should be added or removed?

Coke vs Pepsi...

Turns out the number 1 soft drink is Coke. The number 2 isn't even Pepsi, it's...Diet Coke! Listen here

Some great advertising here...Pepsi Commercial

And Coke versus Coke Zero

AT&T buys T-Mobile USA

AT&T buys T-Mobile instead of Sprint. This is a follow up to the story below on 11 March. What does this mean for consumers, producers?

U.S., others in G-7 sell yen to support Japan - USATODAY.com

IB 2, try and graph this for Tuesday.

Read the article in USA Today...
U.S., others in G-7 sell yen to support Japan - USATODAY.com

or listen to a similar article from Marketplace.org...

G7 Rallies to Weaken Yen

Big Pharma, Oligopoly tactics?

Read for yourself...Suit claims Bristol-Myers bribed doctors to prescribe its drugs - USATODAY.com

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Legendary Shots

Monopolistic Competition or Oligopoly? This is Legendary (Ok, I really just wanted to post this because I thought it was cool).

Sprint merger with Tmobile?

Click the link to listen to the story, Sprint, T-Mobile Resume Merger Discussions

This Oligopoly industry is getting smaller. Is this better or worse for consumers? My quick take...likely higher prices but as the audio suggests, they will have more bargaining power and could bring the Iphone to this new larger mobile carrier.

Solar Panels for Lease

This story is about leasing solar panels for 20 years at $4000. That's about $0.55 per day or about $15 per month for the next 20 years for utilities. This reduces the owner's electricity meter to zero or negative, which means the owner is producing more energy than they are consuming. The tax credit made available by the government is signed over to the leasing company. To me this is a great example of a quasi-public/private endeavor. Public utility company + tax credit + private solar company + consumer + private investor = mixed economy. It is the government providing the proper incentives to encourage private investment by the consumer and producer, which over all reduces (or eliminates?) the negative externality of consumption of electricity.

Why buy a solar panel when you can lease it? | Marketplace From American Public Media