1 2016
Government and Policy 178
Opinion 106
Tech 351
iPhone index shows path to economic good times

First there was the Facebook Factor that was going to help California’s struggling state government dig its way out of its financial hole.

Now comes the iPhone index. Turns out that when Tim Cook and his folks unveil the iPhone 5 in San Francisco Wednesday they’ll be holding in their hand an economic-stimulus device that could bump GDP by $3.2 billion in the fourth quarter.

So says the Wall Street Journal, reporting on work by JP Morgan Chase economist Michael Feroli. 

Wheezing economy? Apparently there is an app for that. (Now all Apple has to do is release about 100 new iPhone models a year and problem solved.)

Even Feroli, by the way, says to take the $3.2 billion figure with a grain of salt. But the way he explains it to the Journal makes some sense: Apple sells 8 million phones in Q4, cash registers fill, etc.

The problem, of course, is things don’t always work out the way they should. The Facebook Factor was counting on newly-minted IPO millionaires, who would send their capital gains taxes to Sacramento by the bucketful.

In the end the full Facebook bounce wasn’t there, though, and the capital didn’t gain as it thought it might.

 

 

Mike Cassidy Mike Cassidy (87 Posts)

I write about the culture of Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News.