Centives

Christopher Mims wrote that 3D printing and scanning might come be coming together to revolutionize the act of brushing teeth:

• The great promise of 3D printing is creating an era of mass-customization – products tailored specifically for us.
• The Blizzident is a tooth “brush” that is customized to the shape of an individual’s mouth. A user merely has to bite on it and chomp for six seconds and the designers claim that teeth will be cleaned up and down as well as side to side.
• To get one somebody merely needs to visit their dentist who can make an impression of their teeth which is then sent to Blizzident’s offices.
• Blizzident then produces the customized brush for $300.
• This might be a hard sell though since most toothbrushes have to be replaced every three months and if the same is the case with Blizzident then consumers will find it a tad too pricey.

Read more about it here.

Source: Quartz

Centives has previously noted that for every extra second that a customer has to wait at a drive-thru, restaurants have to lower prices by four cents to keep customers coming back. A new study, outlined by Bruce Horovitz, should, thus, worry fast food restaurants:

• The average fast food wait time is getting longer.
• McDonald’s wait time is the highest it’s been in 15 years. It now takes the average drive-thru customer 189.5 seconds to get their food. This is nine seconds longer than the industry average.
• Drive-thrus are a particular concern for fast food restaurants since up to 70% of a chain’s business comes through it.
• Menu bloat is one reason for the slowing. As fast food restaurants introduce increasingly upscale menu items that are more difficult to make, cooking times have naturally increases.
• Taco Bell’s Cantina Bell Bowls, for example, have up to 12 ingredients and are complex endeavours.
• Restaurants are also increasing quality checks since customers get especially upset if they receive the wrong order.

Read more about the study, its findings, and what this means for restaurants and customers over here.

Source: USA Today

The BBC had a couple articles that looked at what the government shutdown means:

• The last time the government shutdown in the 90s, it cost the government $2.1 billion in today’s dollars.
• If the shut down continues for three weeks it is estimated to reduce GDP growth by up to 0.9% this quarter.
• The stock markets have remained stable thus far – one member of the business community notes that they have become “numb” to “Washington posturing” over the past five years.
• But while the markets are stable, half of all bosses believe that the budget drama has had a negative impact on employee hiring.
• The shutdown will have the largest impact on the economy of the capital, Washington DC, where the federal government accounts for a third of the economy.
• Depending on the length of the shutdown, the release of statistics about American jobs might be delayed, as might the IPO of Twitter.
• Many employees who “provide for the national security” may have to work without pay.

Read more here and here.

Source: BBC

Joshua Brustein wrote about King, the maker of Candy Crush, and how it can avoid the fate of Zynga. In it he provided some fascinating details about King’s breakout game, Candy Crush:

• Candy Crush is by far the most popular Facebook app – with ten times as many users as the second most popular app.
• It is also the top grossing mobile app in various app stores.
• The company is estimated to make $850,000 every day from Candy Crush. That comes out to $310 million a year.
• And this is despite the fact that the game is free – the game charges only people who need extra help.
• As a result of its success the maker of the game has filed an IPO to list on the stock market. It is expected to be valued at $5 billion.

Read more about how King can avoid the fate of Zynga here.

Source: Business Week

Paul Mozur, and Eva Dou write that things made in China will soon increasingly be made by robots rather than cheap Chinese labour:

• Robots have long had the ability to manufacture the items that are currently made by human beings.
• Yet factories have continued to use manual labour in part because most items are only manufactured for around 18 months and reprogramming or purchasing robots after each product cycle is arduous.
• Robots are also problematic because while humans can be laid off during downturns, robots can’t.
• Moreover until recently it was cheaper to just have a human rather than a robot do the job.
• This is changing. As China’s population ages, and the youth become increasingly reluctant to engage in manual labour wages have shot up.
• Most think that in an era of automated factories production will shift back to the United States, however since the rest of the product supply chain still resides in China, it is likely that robot manufacturing will remain in China.

Read more about the items that are being manufactured by robots, the designs of the latest robots, and more over here.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Via: Marginal Revolution

Believe it or not Michael S. Rosenwald writes that gas stations are starting to sell food that rivals that of many restaurants:

• While gas accounts for 72% of cash flow, it only creates 35% of profit at gas stations.
• In order to discourage customers from paying at the pump, and instead coming into the store where higher value products are sold, gas station owners are investing in restaurants that make high quality food.
• Restaurant owners for their part are attracted to the guaranteed food traffic (most stations see 1,100 customers a day) and low startup costs.
• In the future there might even be a successful chain of gas station restaurant franchises at pumps across America.

Read more about the role that food trucks played in the trend, why ethnic food is often served, and what the best examples are over here.

Source: The Washington Post

Via: Marginal Revolution

The Economist surveyed the literature on the economics of slavery:

• Businesses that used slaves were profitable. Returns on investing in slaves were comparable to those from investing in other capital projects such as railroad bonds.
• Slavery also drove the rise of provincial banking due to the need for credit in the international slave trade.
• Profits from slavery were used for important infrastructure projects such as railways.
• However slavery was likely a net negative for regions as a whole.
• Slaves – understandably – made reluctant workers and thus depleted farming soils more quickly.
• They were also unable to develop expertise and drive innovation as they weren’t given the opportunity to engage in scientific enquiry. As a result of this southern farms were ultimately eclipsed by northern ones in the United States.
• Since slaves were a fixed cost (in terms of food and shelter) farms couldn’t be dependent on any one crop as a crash in its price may make them unable to pay their fixed costs. Therefore farms were forced to diversify and this inhibited specialization and trade.
• The lack of specialization ultimately meant that the American South had troubles developing a manufacturing industry.
• And, of course, when considering the economics of slavery it is important to consider the moral and ethical costs, which, of course, eclipse all other costs and benefits.

Read more about why slave owners might not have been profit seekers, other industries that blossomed as a result of slavery, and more over here.

Source: The Economist

In an age of austerity getting international citizenship is ‘cheaper’ than ever writes The Economist:

• By investing $1.3M in financial assets or creating 10 jobs Portugal offers a residency permit. A passport can follow. Ireland, Spain, Macedonia, and Cyprus, to name a few, have similar schemes.
• For cash-strapped governments it is an easy way to raise funds without having to do much in return.
• It’s not just people looking to emigrate who take advantage of the schemes. Those who want to disguise their origins for international travel will often get the passport of another country (think an Israeli wanting to visit Iran).
• Others like international passports because those of some countries guarantee visa-free travel.

Read more here.

Source: The Economist

Weapon inspectors have been all the rage in international politics recently. Alison Gee described what a typical inspection team looks like:

• The team needs a civil engineer to insure that the buildings they’re inspecting are structurally stable.
• An ordinance expert checks for unexploded bombs and mines.
• Medical experts liaise with local doctors after an alleged chemical attack to identify the poison that was used – if any.
• Chemists, of course, are needed to determine if and how chemicals are being turned into weapons.
• If a bomb or warhead was used in the attack, a rocket scientist maybe utilized to confirm the delivery mechanism.
• Forensic experts follow the paper trail and make sure that when the government hands over a document with a certain date, the date, and the document are authentic through analysis of the ink and paper.
• For smooth interviews interpreters and skilled negotiators as well as experts in the psychology of body language are required.

Read about the importance of persistence, the experiences of previous weapons inspection teams and more over here.

Source: BBC

The sad events in Pakistan led Joshua Keating to write about the economics of disaster relief:

• When disasters happen donor attention and media coverage seem to be driven by the number of people killed.
• Each additional person killed in a disaster leads to an extra $9,000 in donations.
• TV coverage also depends on the area of the world the event is taking place in.
• A 1980s study found that Western Europeans received 9.2 minutes of coverage per 1,000 deaths. For Latin Americans it was 1.02, and Asians it was 0.76.
• This means that the death of an Italian is roughly speaking equal to the death of 3 Romanians, 9 Latin Americans, 11 Middle Easterners and 12 Asians.
• However deaths aren’t the best metric by which to measure a disaster. People should instead focus on the number of people affected or those in need.

Read more about how this donor bias can be alleviated, examples of the differing response to disasters, and more over here.

Source: Slate, Foreign Policy