Andrew Zatlin

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a minimum wage worker in the U.S. would have to work 50 hours a week to get above the poverty line. In the Czech Republic, it’s even worse. A single worker with two children earning minimum wage would have to...

The Vice Index has been revised and is now chained to January 2009. The data itself goes back to 1993. Vice spending is where the desire to spend meets the ability to spend. As the heart of consumer spending, vices adhere nicely to more conventional economic benchmarks like retail sales. Retail...

Semiconductors are in most things you use on a daily basis. They’re in your smartphone, your blender, your thermostat… even those silly greeting cards that play music when you open them. If they aren’t in the things you use, they were in the things that made the things you use...

Tripadvisor Inc (NASDAQ: TRIP) is out with a new survey that may make fans of "National Lampoon's Vacation" cringe. According to the survey, 77 percent of employed U.S. respondents said that they had worked on a vacation within the past year. Clearly, they're not just going...

This article was originally published on Moneyball Economics, home of the world's most unique economic commentary. The San Francisco Bay Area is home to: ~10 percent of the S&P 500 6 of the top 20 companies by market capitalization 30 of the 65 Information Technology companies...

This article was originally published on Moneyball Economics, home of the world's most unique economic commentary. I am a gambling man – aren’t all investors? When I get invited to speak, I like to make a wager with my hosts. I bet them $1 that the first question from the...

This article was originally published on Moneyball Economics, home of the world's most unique economic commentary. Ty Cobb was a famous baseball player. Infamous, really. He set 90 Major League baseball records, some of which continue today. He was skillful but also mean; he had a...

This article was originally published on Moneyball Economics, home of the world's most unique economic commentary. Vice spending is one of the most seldom used, but surprisingly accurate leading gauges of consumer strength and the economy. Everyone knows that when consumers have more money...

This article was originally published on Moneyball Economics, home of the world's most unique economic commentary. I'm putting my money where my mouth is. My 401K is entirely in equity market funds and stocks, and will stay there as long as I see the right signals from the economy and...

Moneyball Economics founder and CEO, Andrew Zatlin, understands the subject of vice in a way few others do. In part two of Benzinga’s conversation with Zatlin, the economist discussed luxury spending and the role of vices like gambling and prostitution in predicting economic activity....

"I had a chance to sit down with Tommy Chong of 'Cheech & Chong.'" With these words, Andrew Zatlin, founder and CEO of "Moneyball Economics" was off and running. In a wide-ranging interview, Zatlin spoke with Benzinga about everything from marijuana consumption...