The 2017 Nobel economics prize has been awarded to Richard Thaler of the University of Chicago for research on behavioral economics, which shows how our emotions can impact economic decision-making, as well as our investment performance. Thaler’s body of work has built on that of Israeli psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, who forty years ago showed the ways in which the human mind systematically erred, when forced to make judgments in uncertain situations.
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Hurricanes Irma and Harvey blew across the labor market, as employers shed 33,000 jobs in September. Yes, it was the first negative reading on payrolls in seven years, but until we have the subsequent few months’ reports, it’s hard to read too much into the results. (As a note, Puerto Rico is NOT included in the BLS report.) The Labor Department said that the storms likely contributed to “a sharp employment decline in food services and drinking places (-105K) and below-trend growth in some other industries.”
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The Republican tax plan is out and you may be wondering, “How does this affect me?” Unfortunately, the details are scant. Before determining the impact on individuals, corporations and the nation’s balance sheet, the following questions must be resolved:
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