Business

Calamitous Harvard grads and the health benefits of austerity

Who knew??

  • Graduates of Harvard University are increasingly heading into careers in finance, which is a bad thing. Statistics show that when Harvard grads flock to Wall Street (when times are good and careers there appear most attractive), the stock market falls the following year. In 2007, for instance, 47 per cent of Harvard grads went to Wall Street, reports the website Quartz. We all know what happened in 2008.
  • Austerity strikes again. Italy reported there were 1.65 million bicycles sold in the country in 2012, compared to 1.4 million cars. It’s the first time bike sales have passed car sales in nearly 50 years in Italy, home to Ferrari and Lamborghini. “There is a silent revolution taking place on two wheels in our cities,” said the country’s transport undersecretary last week.
  • Legendary Pictures LLC, the company behind hits such as the Hangover movies and Dark Knight, is focusing on a new plot line: the Chinese market. It is reportedly partnering with the China Film Co. Ltd., the country’s biggest distributor, to co-produce several movies. China is the world’s top movie market after North America.
  • A new boom in America’s housing market—where prices are up by double digits in many cities across the country—has brought the return of a once-familiar and loathed breed of buyer: the house flipper. In California in recent months, the number of houses bought and sold within six months has reached its highest levels since 2005, reports the Wall Street Journal. The buying and selling of homes for a quick profit was blamed for helping to inflate America’s housing bubble in the early 2000s.

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