// BLOG
Another reason to buy Patagonia
January 10, 2012
Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia…and an all around super outdoors man, has recently restructured his company as a “benefit corporation”
According to Mr Chouinard, the new “benefit corporation”—usually referred to as a B Corp—creates the legal framework for firms like his to remain true to their social goals. To qualify as a B Corp, a firm must have an explicit social or environmental mission, and a legally binding fiduciary responsibility to take into account the interests of workers, the community and the environment as well as its shareholders.
Basically, the B-corp is a hybrid between a for profit business and a not for profit. So maybe now you will not feel as bad when you have to pony up 200 bucks for a Patagonia fleece.
Here is a link to an Economist article on the subject: http://www.economist.com/node/21542432
Euro Area Statistics
November 12, 2011
This is a really nice interactive map that summarizes some of the central problems of the Eurozone
Debt Around the World
August 3, 2011
Check out this interactive chart of debt levels across the globe. The US is now faced with an ever increasing debt burden, but we are not alone. Japan, the UK and many of the large Euro Zone countries such as France and Spain hold similar level of debt to the US.
Check out the full Economist article here:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/07/world-debt-guide
Update of the Big Mac Index
July 28, 2011
The Economist has updated the methodology that it uses to calculate it popular Big Max index, which is a fun way to measure currency valuations using the Big Max burger as a common denominator. Previous the Economist used the “raw” price of the burger to calculate the under/over valutation of a currency. Now they have adjusted the calculation by GDP per person. The new results show that the Chinese yuan is not as undervalued as once thought. Here is the link:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/07/big-mac-index
See who holds our Debt
July 26, 2011
This is a nice interactive chart that breaks down each piece of the federal debt. You can see the breakdown of domestic vs foreign holdings etc.
http://innovation.cq.com/media/debt_components/
Also, here is a nice graphic which charts the timeseries of the debt limit. The interactive graph also show you which party was in power when the limits where raised. Take a look….these are put together very nicely!
