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Fox Business: How Daylight Saving Time clock changes upend the economy Moving the clock costs the US big bucks, but action in Congress to get rid of the practice is stalled

  |   By Polling+ Staff

This illustration photo shows a clock in the background of a smartphone showing the time after daylight saving time was implemented in Los Angeles, California, on March 15, 2022. - The US Senate advanced a bill on March 15 that would bring an end to the twice-yearly changing of clocks, in favor of a "new, permanent standard time" that would mean brighter winter evenings. (Photo by Chris DELMAS / AFP) (Photo by CHRIS DELMAS/AFP via Getty Images)

Yes, it’s that time again.

Fox Business headlines: https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/how-daylight-saving-time-upends-economy

How Daylight Saving Time clock changes upend the economy 

Moving the clock costs the US big bucks, but action in Congress to get rid of the practice is stalled

Reports FB:

“On Sunday, Nov. 5, most of the U.S. will dial back their clocks an hour in order to ‘fall back’ to standard time as part of the nation’s semi-annual ritual of changing the time. 

While much of the analysis surrounding America’s twice-a-year clock changes covers the health effects of Daylight Saving Time (DST) – which includes a higher risk of cardiac issues amid disrupted sleep schedules – the economic toll has not received as much focus. 

However, research indicates that changing the clock twice a year has adverse impacts on the money side of things that are very real, and the evidence is growing. 

A study published last year by researchers from several business schools found that investors and capital market participants are slower to respond to accounting reports in the week after we spring forward’ – which falls smack in the middle of earnings season.

‘These results are strongest among firms with investors who are more likely to be trading on earnings news and among firms with a less sophisticated investor base,’ the authors wrote. ‘Further analysis reveals that our main results are driven by muted reactions to positive earnings surprises, consistent with cognitive impairment and investor pessimism jointly underlying the diminished market response to earnings news.’ 

There is also evidence the time change leads to an increase in heart attacks, strokes and depression, leading to an increase in health care costs. Even commuting becomes more treacherous and expensive, given that the change to DST has been linked to spikes in car accidents.”

Sorry for the cheerful news.

But it’s coming. Sunday morning at 2:00 a.m.

Fall back. And stay awake the next day!