I recently purchased my first house here in the Bay Area, and I did it in a decidedly non-traditional way.  For a few years I had been reading about a smaller real estate company known as Redfin which operated in a more hands-off way than a normal real estate firm.  Redfin leverages technology and a slick user interface to help its users (most of which will not use Redfin to buy a home, but the search feature is that good) find homes on their own.  Once a house is purchased, Redfin actually refunds some of the brokerage commission.  In most places, 3% of the purchase prices goes to the seller's agent, 3% to the buyers, and 1.5%, 50% of Redfin's commission, goes back to the end user.  So... what's the catch?

Serious Thinkers™ in all corners of the web return to some common themes, even when those themes are currently out of the public spotlight. Recently, those Serious Thinkers™ have been reading between the lines on topics which the public has moved on from - the effect of the minimum wage on unemployment, and even more to the point, the effect of the minimum wage on specific segments of the population. And why shouldn't they? The current official unemployment rate is 9.2%, but the official unemployment rate among those with a Bachelor's Degree or higher is a relatively healthy 4.4%.

In 2006, Former President George Bush signed a well intentioned law which allowed companies to automatically enroll employees in the company retirement program - and to automatically choose the investment in which they were enrolled. The Pension Protection Act of 2006 authorized companies to automatically enroll new participants and enroll them in three types of funds - lifecycle funds, balanced funds, and managed accounts - while absolving the companies of any financial liability for losses in the funds. As expected, the law has effectively increased the rate of participation in company 401(k) accounts.

There is a German word which perfectly describes a feeling we often get... in English-Speaking America.  "Schadenfreude" means to derive pleasure from the misfortune of others.  Generally, when schadenfreude appears in print, it refers to the failings of a high powered sports team, such as the New York Yankees or (not this year!) the Los Angeles Lakers.  These teams are historically so good (note I left out my favorites, the Boston teams, although they could certainly apply) that other sports fans will cheer for two things - their team to win, and team X to lose!  On that note, today I bring you a link which will most likely make you happy - and the 'team' is Bank of America.

Every few months, we here at DQYDJ like to check in on the market's expectations of inflation.  There are lots of variables in the market - not least of which is the ending of the Federal Reserve's open market purchase of bonds known as Quantitative Easing 2.0.  Still, even with the conflicting signals of  historically high gold prices, ridiculously low mortgage prices, and out of control commodity prices, the market isn't pricing out of control inflation.  As a matter of fact, the inflation that it is pricing in is decently low.  Enough rambling, let's take a look.

Recently an interesting Forbes article was published which looks at the state fiscal crisis in a new and refreshing way.  Using a 'deadweight ratio' of the number of private sector workers paying into state funds versus the number of public sector workers and pensions being paid out.  By this measure you can tell how many people each private sector worker is supporting in the public sector -whether a retiree or a public sector worker.  Yes, by this measure, in California, the results are still dire.  Read on to see what I mean!

We haven't looked at inflation expectations since November 15! Quantitative easing, historically low interest rates, and a rise in consumer spending haven't been enough to increase inflation past a tame (again, historically low) 0.7% since December of 2009. However, we live in the real world and even if we were spared from inflation's clutches today, we might not be so lucky in the future. On that note, let's look at the market's inflation expectations - which we calculate by subtracting the Treasury's Daily Real Curve Rates from the Daily Treasury Yield Curve.

Sticky wages are more than a disgusting check you receive from your employer - employees are likely to not want to take a job for less money than one they worked previously. Sticky wages are one of the reasons that recessions can last a long time, sort of like the 'Great Recession' of the recent past. Even though the recession is officially over, high employment still exists, and a number of economic indicators still are at shaky levels. Anecdotally, there are many examples of people who took lower paying jobs in order to get back to work, however the official data shows that wages stayed flat or even rose, even throughout the recession.

(Updated with information on Facebook's potential IPO in April 2012). Remember back just a few short years ago when the ultimate goal of a start-up in Silicon Valley was to either get bought out (by a public company) or to go public? The first internet bubble saw companies like Amazon and eBay make their debuts, but it also relegated other companies to the history books: iWon.com, pets.com, and Startups.com. As a result of new regulations and laws (a major piece being the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002), an Initial Public Offering may not be the glamorous exit strategy it once was. A perfect example most of us have experience with? Facebook.

I just wanted to take a moment to wish a Merry Christmas to all of our Christian readers out there (happy holidays to the rest of you, of course!) from us here at DQYDJ.