Expert Witness Blog

Economics expert Jeremy Aguero will speak at the Economic and Workforce Webinar, February 28th in Las Vegas. Mr. Aguero formed Applied Analysis in 1997 and his areas of expertise include economic analysis, operational model development, and fiscal impact analysis.

Restaurant business purchase trends have improved, but you have to know wheree to look for buyers

Economist Peter Ashton testified in Franklin Circuit Court, VA, that Marathon Petroleum charged prices at the pump “grossly in excess” of its actual costs during a declared emergency after widespread flooding in April. Ashton was the state’s expert and he testified that Marathon’s “cost increases could not justify these price increases.”

Former Sen. Phil Gramm, the Texas Republican synonymous with many of the biggest fiscal fights of the 1980s, appeared before a Senate Finance Committee as an expert witness last week on the shortcomings of budget enforcement mechanisms — some of which he designed and Congress is now reconsidering as part of an upcoming debate over raising the federal debt ceiling.

A number of influnces and developments in the restaurant business sector are underway. The article hights fundamentals developments.

According to the forensic economics literature, we would say the best approach would be to compute the reduction in payout at the time of retirement, rather than employer contribution. This approach, however, is more complicated, uses assumptions contributing to perhaps a more speculative figure and this method is more time-consuming for the economist.

The unfortunate reality is that for the average American wage growth has not been keeping up with inflation since approx 1975! This may be referred to as the phenomenon of the falling real wage.

…..forensic economists look to the specific earnings history of the individual, when available, and exercise judgment in determining the earning capacity that should be expected in future years.

Worklife

A statistical average of the number of years a person will be working. It factors out the probability of death, sickness, child rearing, and leaving the labor force.

Atlanta Gas Light Co.’s rates should be reduced rather than raised, the Georgia Public Service Commission’s Public Interest Advocacy Staff recommended this week. In testimony filed on Thursday, economic expert witness Lane Kollen, called by the PSC staff, suggested a reduction of $15.6 million in AGL’s base rates. The gas utility is asking the commission for a rate increase of $54.2 million.

In item 20 of the FDD, closely examine the so called franchisee churn rate–the number of company owned and franchisee units that have opened, closed, or transfered over the last several years, versus the total company unit size. Too many closures or transfers is bad–its a sign of stress and turmoil. Generally, franchise owners do […]