Could Cash-for-Clunkers Work in the Airline Industry?

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Newer fuel-efficient planes that emit less greenhouse gas don’t help solve global warming if the old gas guzzlers keep flying. But if Uncle Sam bought the clunkers and scrapped them, the calculated savings in carbon reduction would be:

More than five times the cost to buy and junk them.

Two times the cost, and still worth it.

Just 27% of the cost to buy and junk the planes, making a cash-for-airline clunkers program uneconomic.

Read on: Using data about aircraft resales and fuel usage and estimates of the scrap value of used planes, researchers conclude that scrapping 65 planes retired by the six largest U.S. carriers between 2015 and 2019 would have cost the government $146 million and delivered a carbon-reduction benefit valued at more than $821 million.

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Drug patents come with a 20-year exclusivity period, allowing pharma makers to recoup investment before generic competition kicks in. On average, 9.1 years is eaten up in development, testing and regulatory approvals, leaving 10.9 years to sell, sell, sell. So-called add-on, or “evergreening” patents, much criticized, add, on average, another:

10 years to the exclusivity period.

2.5 years.

Make the exclusive period infinite.

Read on: Patent add-ons added $52.6 billion in sales (consumer costs) to a group of drugs studied, which excluded biologics such as Humira, among the most expensive drugs.

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Do university researchers respond to government pollution mandates? After stricter pollution rules were imposed on major cities, higher education institutions in those areas pumped out increased research — and won patents — around automobiles, especially electric and hybrid models. What country did this occur in?

Brazil.

The United States.

China.

Read on: The relationship — and level of trust — between each country’s government and its separate public and private organizations varies and that can significantly affect uptake of federal initiatives.

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Some corporate bonds don’t trade for days or even weeks, yet bond funds that hold them have to report prices daily. Go figure. When interest rates are rising (which drives bond prices down), that can lead to stale, or inaccurate, pricing of bond funds, an opportunity for in-the-know traders to sell before official prices adjust. Research suggests the selling pattern is:

A trickle of sales; and a flood of sales if rate increases are extreme.

Steady sales during any rate increase, regardless of its intensity.

Sales during moderate rate increases, but, oddly, muted sales during extreme rate increases.

Read on: During extreme rate increases, it appears some investors would rather wait out an extreme price dip in their bond fund than sell.

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Your crazy uncle — and millions of other Americans — hold beliefs not supported by facts. Researchers wondered whether lack of trust in the source of correct information could account for refusal to adjust beliefs. Tests conducted on 2,000 volunteers suggest:

Nope. My mind is made up.

That’s very interesting, but no sale.

You’re wasting your time.

All of the above.

Read on: “We find that individuals claim to be quite open-minded; they claim their beliefs would change in response to the information,” the researchers write. “In actuality, no such thing happens.”