There is a famous quote in the Talmud, the revered Jewish commentary, “Whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.” Our society puts a great value on human life, but the life preserving business is a complicated expensive challenge for patients, doctors, insurance companies and governments. I want to share with you some fascinating insights on this topic brought up in a podcast of NPR’s show Radiolab. Sovaldi (Sofosbuvir) is a drug for treating Hepatitis C that was released in December of 2013. In the U.S. it costs $1,000 per pill, which you take…
Author: Lloyd Graff
For those of us who live in the United States, shop on Amazon and eat French fries at McDonalds, the world feels pretty flat. But the world economy is trembling underneath us every day. Ten years of pouring sand and water into fracking wells in Williston, North Dakota, and what were once thought to be played out Texas oilfields where they played football on Friday Night Lights has changed our world by bringing back $2 gasoline. Ben Bernanke’s contrarian approach at the Federal Reserve stabilized a busted banking system and helped rejuvenate the emaciated American economy, which easily could have…
I’ve spent a lot of time listening to pundits blab their predictions as I’ve been recovering from knee surgery in December. Today I’m ready to blab my own. 1) 2015 will be a very nice car year, but a terrific truck year in America. Gas prices will probably fluctuate between $2 and $2.50. There are a lot of small businesses that have dilapidated vehicles begging for replacement. The depreciation law makes a $25,000 pickup a no-brainer for a landscaper or plumber driving a beater that poorly represents his or her business. Look for light trucks to be up 25%. Big trucks should also have…
HARTFORD, Conn. — As a decade-long push to make a national park out of Samuel Colt’s 19th-century gun factory won approval, elected officials hailed the project as a way to boost one of Hartford’s poorest neighborhoods and honor the revolver as a marvel of manufacturing. Notably absent from the celebrating was Colt’s Manufacturing Co., as it and other gun makers say a strict gun control law has left them feeling unwelcome in the state. The factory, distinguished by its blue onion-shaped dome, opened in 1855 and is perhaps the best-known symbol of an era when gun companies in the Connecticut…
As the oil price plunges, gloom and ill-will, oddly, abound BE CAREFUL what you wish for. After years of grumbles about a historically high oil price, the cost of crude has tumbled. But cries of woe are outnumbering the shouts of joy. Exporters, oil-company shareholders and industry suppliers are all contemplating a future of oil at $60 a barrel—or below. So too are all the people who lent money to them. Markets are pricing in the pain and pessimism immediately, while seeming to discount the future gains to energy users. Russia’s currency is at a record low, falling below 60…
While the U.S. government has been interrogating the CIA this week for the organization’s own controversial interrogation practices on suspected terrorists, I reflect on how our country’s perspective on terrorism has morphed over the last 13 years since September 11, 2001. The “War on Terror” is a term that many Americans have grown numb to as we encounter it on such a regular basis, whether it be in the real news or watching our favorite primetime shows. But of course, the United States has been officially at war with terrorism for decades, and the evolution of this war has been…
I’m writing this column one week after a full knee replacement. The surgeon used a Stryker knee. Some of you may have made parts that are now in my right knee. Thank you. The recovery is going ok, I guess. I’m taking the narcotic Oxycontin twice a day, and I am not used to its side effects which make me dopey, mess up my vulnerable vision, and perhaps give me slight hallucinations. The pain is tolerable, but I am annoyed by my struggle to concentrate. Everybody tells me that the recovery gets easier after the first week, and I feel…
The price of oil has hit another five-year low as fears of oversupply continue to mount. Brent crude was down $1.77 at $67.30 a barrel in Monday afternoon trading, having earlier hit $66.77 – its lowest since October 2009. US crude was down $1.44 at $64.40, after falling as low as $64.14. Morgan Stanley predicted that Brent would average $70 a barrel in 2015, down $28 from a previous forecast, and be $88 a barrel in 2016. The investment bank also said that oil prices could fall as low as $43 a barrel next year. Analyst Adam Longson said that…
I just finished listening to a great book called Predictably Irrational, by the acclaimed professor of behavioral economics, Dan Ariely. As I listened, I kept thinking of the irrational factors we deal with every day in the machine tool business. Ariely says that standard economics assumes people are rational, thus they can make logical and sensible decisions, and quickly learn from past poor decisions either on their own or with the help of standard market forces. However, his research has shown that people are much less rational than we assume. He says that people make the same mistakes over and…
Going into 2015, the machining folk have an interesting reversal of fortune from recent years. Automotive sales are nudging towards 17 million with trucks and SUVs taking 52% marketshare. The new Ford F-150 with the aluminum body is just hitting the showrooms, and Honda’s CR-V was last month’s top seller. The remarkable drop in oil and gas prices should expand volume especially for trucks. It’s possible that the weak retail sales numbers from Black Friday indicate more buyers gravitating to auto dealerships. The losers in the oil plunge are the folks heavy into oil exploration and drilling products. Until recently…