Some interesting tidbits in these examples.
Yoga Studio
-Money isn’t all there is to a job. Economists also consider “compensating differentials,” nonmonetary pros and cons. A meth dealer needs high returns to take on the risk of arrest, and apparently people are willing to earn much less for the pleasures of being a yoga guru.
Drug Dealer
-“Nick,” a top crystal-meth dealer for a decade before getting arrested in 2004, explains the system. Every other month, he’d purchase a pound of meth ($32,000 to $36,000) from producers in the Midwest or the Filipino mob in California, and have it shipped via regular mail or FedEx inside teddy bears, candles, or coffee. In the next 36 hours, he’d sell it in bulk to three or four associates, pocketing a 500 percent profit.
Discount Stores
- . . . dollar stores are also quietly fed products manufacturers want to expose to a more down-market demographic. “Companies figure that customers aren’t going to overlap from department stores to dollar stores, so they sell the same product at both,” says one analyst. Of course, Jack’s vice-president, Ira Steinberg, can’t tell you who these manufacturers are.
Pharma
- When firms in high-risk industries, like pharmaceuticals or finance, locate in New York, they are providing their workers a form of insurance: If this firm were to collapse, another would take its place.
Financials
- Most-Profitable Activities: Trading and investing: 41.5 percent profit margin. Goldman’s most profitable department is also the most volatile and risky—the trading desk is in the red 40 days a year, compared with just 28 at Morgan Stanley and just eight at both Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers.
I'm not sure if they've done a more recent one.