Enjoy this edition of the Curious Cat Investing, Economics and Personal Finance Carnival. This carnival is different than many blog carnivals: I select posts on those topics from what I read (instead of posting those that submit to the carnival as many carnivals do). If you would like to host the carnival add a comment below.

• The Economics of Netflix’s $100 Million New Show – “ith Netflix spending a reported $100 million to produce two 13-episode seasons of House of Cards, they need 520,834 people to sign up for a $7.99 subscription for two years to break even.”
• Chart of Top Countries for Manufacturing Production 1999-2011 by John Hunter – “the four leading nations for manufacturing production remain solidly ahead of all the rest. Korea and Italy had manufacturing output of $313 billion in 2011 and Brazil moved up to $308 are in 4-6 place. Those 3 countries together could be in 4th place (ahead of just Germany). Even adding Korea and Italy together the total is short of Germany by $103 billion.”
• Why a Transaction Fee Matters to You by David Brin – “By raw extrapolation, this zero-point-zero-three-percent (0.03%) fee could raise a whopping deficit-curbing $352 billion dollars in ten years, while helping capital markets to settle down” [I agree we should use a very small fee to raise money and reduce incentive for high frequency trading/frontrunning – John]
• Mexico: The New China – “Today, what Shenzhen is to Hong Kong, Tijuana is becoming to San Diego. You can drive from our San Diego engineering center to our Tijuana factory in 20 minutes, no passport required. (A passport is needed to come back, but there are fast-track lanes for business people.)”
• Why I added ConocoPhillips to my Dividend Income portfolio by Jim Jubak – “I still like these shares as a dividend income play, however, even at this slightly higher price. Through a series of asset sales and the May spin off of its refining assets into a separate company, Phillips 66 (PSX), ConocoPhillips has turned itself into the biggest U.S.-based independent exploration and production company.”
• Adding Passive Income Flows: Buying A Farm? Am I Crazy? – “The world population continues to expand and is likely to keep doing that for a significant amount of time. Much of that growth is happening in emerging countries which are quickly increasing food imports as they can gradually afford to do so. It shouldn’t be a shock to anyone that food prices have increased so much in the past few years and I honestly don’t think there’s anything that will stop that increase.”
• Health Care Costs Continue to Grow Including Costs Missed in Economic Data by John Hunter – “The burden of long term supervisor care (that which can be provided by a non-health care professional) is one reason a resurgence in multi-generation housing options make sense to me. There are other good reasons also (child care, socialization, financial support to the young…). There are some real advantages and real disadvantages to such options.”

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