Numlock News: August 22, 2018
By Walt Hickey
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Bosses
A new survey found that on average managers had 9 direct reports, up from 5 in 2008 and only 35 percent of employees said they believed their manager understood their day-to-day work. Two out of every three employees said that they had to consult with more than one boss to accomplish their job, which I’m sure really kicks efficiency into gear. In the bosses’ defense, half the time my boss doesn’t understand my day to day work, and I am self-employed.
Lauren Weber and Lynn Cook, The Wall Street Journal
Baseball Is Awful and Here Is The Proof
Former players admit that this is a particularly rough spell for the game, as games are both longer and more boring. Here’s a distressing parade of facts showing it isn’t just you. On 31.6 percent of plate appearances, seven dudes are just standing around because the ball isn’t put into play. The league batting average (.248) is the lowest since 1972, which is the year before the DH was introduced. Through August, there were more strikeouts than hits. For perspective, April was the first month ever that strikeouts beat hits.
Investors
J.P. Morgan is rolling out a new brokerage service with the price point of free, a bold move for an investment bank and a broadside on the retail investment advisory business. Customers would get 100 free stock or ETF trades a year, and the service is open to 47 million customers. The move is targeted at younger people — the same market targeted by free trading rival Robinhood — and appears to be working. Early trials found You Invest users were on average 15 years younger than clients of J.P. Morgan’s financial advisers, and 90 percent of them hadn’t invested with the bank before.
Iraqi Refugees Who Aided The War Effort
In 2016, 5,100 Iraqis who had aided U.S. forces during the Iraq War were admitted to the U.S. under a special refugee program designed to bring those who worked for the government, contractors, media and NGOs into America. In 2017, another 3,000 were admitted. As of August 15, this fiscal year only 48 such refugees have been admitted, and the Pentagon is concerned. Should the U.S. not offer a safe haven for the translators and aides, the Pentagon is worried locals will not assist U.S. forces in future conflict zones.
Tesla Cars
To meet an end-of-June manufacturing target, Tesla cranked out 5,000 Model 3s in one week. In the auto industry, cars that make it through the manufacturing process without needing a rework are part of a stat known as “first pass yield.” A competitive plant nails it on the first go over 80 percent of the time. An average plant gets it right 65 percent to 80 percent of the time, according to a manufacturing analyst. That week, only 14 percent of Tesla’s Model 3 didn’t need a rework, new internal documents reveal.
Linette Lopez, Business Insider
Researchers at the University of Warwick analyzed 3,335 anti-refugee attacks in Germany that took place over a two year span in an attempt to identify causes and links. They analyzed cities’ wealth, size, demographics, politics, media consumption, number of refugees, protest, hate crime history, and more. But the striking finding was towns that used Facebook more than others were most strongly linked to anti-refugee attacks. When per-person Facebook use was a standard deviation above the German average, attacks on refugees increased 50 percent. Move fast and break things is right.
Amanda Taub and Max Fisher, The New York Times
Money for Child Care
In the state of Arizona, there are 3,395 households where family members are caring for relatives’ children who would otherwise be in the foster care system, which makes up 43 percent of the children in state custody. Taking on those kids brings on additional financial difficulties that the state tries to mitigate, but when kids live with family rather than entering the foster system, state assistance takes a nosedive. A woman caring for two nieces receives $90 a month from the state, while an non-related foster parent caring for those two girls would receive about $1,300. Some legislators are looking to reduce that disparity.
Mary Jo Pitzl, The Arizona Republic
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