Friday, September 30, 2016

Some International Unemployment Rates

›
The first link is from the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation & Development). It includes the USA, many European countries, Ca...
Friday, September 23, 2016

The Economy Of Westeros

›
See 'Game of Thrones' economics: Austerity, tax and QE by Catherine Boyle on CNBC. From April 2014. Excerpt: "Littlefinger ...
Thursday, September 15, 2016

The San Antonio Spurs And Federal Subsidies

›
See Study: San Antonio Spurs netted $41 million in federal subsidies for AT&T Center construction: Public makes up for taxes not paid o...
Friday, September 09, 2016

Alexander Hamilton And The National Debt

›
See Lessons from Hamilton by Michael Taylor writing for the The San Antonio Express-News . See also Alexander Hamilton May Rule Broadway, B...
Friday, September 02, 2016

The percentage of 25-54 year-olds employed decreased in August

›
One weakness of the unemployment rate is that if people drop out of the labor force they cannot be counted as an unemployed person and the ...
Tuesday, August 23, 2016

My Fall Semester Has Started

›
Welcome to any new students. The entries usually have something to do with a basic economic principle that is related to a recent news stor...
Friday, August 12, 2016

The surprising link between science fiction and economic history

›
By Sebastian Buckup Head of Programming, World Economic Forum
Thursday, August 11, 2016

Cartels: They're not just for drug dealers and oil producers anymore-maple syrup producers have one, too

›
See Maple Syrup Cartel Battles a Black Market Rebellion: Canadian production is set to grow 10 percent in a push for market share by Jen S...
Wednesday, August 10, 2016

The American middle class is shrinking because more people are becoming upper middle class and rich

›
See By Scott Burns . Excerpts: "A new study, however, suggests something different. It shows that the big growth is in people who ar...
Tuesday, August 09, 2016

Does the top 1 percent earn 85 percent of income? Is it 52 percent? Something Else?

›
According to the book The Economics of Macro Issues (6e, 2014), the top 1 percent earn 13.4% of income in the USA (p. 81). This came up in ...
Monday, August 08, 2016

Economic benefits from mega-events like the Olympics are often overstated

›
See Are the Olympics ever worth it for the host city? by Tim Hyde of the American Economic Association. Excerpts: " A study appearin...
Sunday, August 07, 2016

Both numeracy and literacy were invented in the service of finance and commerce

›
That comes from a book review in the NY Times. See Finance Is the Master Technology — and It’s Funded the World by Felix Martin. The book...
Friday, August 05, 2016

The percentage of 25-54 year-olds employed increased in July

›
The percentage of 25-54 year-olds employed is 78.0% for July. It was 77.8% in June. But that is still below the 79.7% in Dec 2007 when reces...
Thursday, August 04, 2016

Is It Worth It For Families To Spend Thousands Of Dollars A Year So Their Kids Can Play In Elite Sports Leagues?

›
See For a child's dreams, are parents going for gold, or broke? by SARAH SKIDMORE SELL, AP Personal Finance Writer. Excerpts: ...
Wednesday, August 03, 2016

Beef Prices Come Down As Supply Increases

›
See Reversal of fortune in cattle country by Lynn Brezosky of the San Antonio Express-News. It seems like high prices in recent years have ...
Sunday, July 31, 2016

"It’s almost like you’re paying to get out of jail" (paying for a service that lets you avoid TSA lines at the airport)

›
We all know that time is money and that there are things we would rather do than wait in the TSA line at the airport. So if the opportunity ...
Saturday, July 30, 2016

Who wrote your potential love's online dating profile? (maybe they outsourced it to a professional who specializes in that)

›
By Danielle Braff of the Chicago Tribune . Output is greater when we all specialize and then trade. So maybe it should not be a surprise tha...
Friday, July 29, 2016

The Unfairness of Unattractiveness

›
See The Unfairness of Unattractiveness by Julian Savulescu. He is the Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics Director, Oxford Uehiro Centre for P...
Friday, July 08, 2016

The unemployment rate rose to 4.9% in June from 4.7% in May (but other stats show no bad news)

›
See U.S. Job Growth Roars Back in June: The nation adds 287,000 jobs, the strongest month of hiring since last October, after a disappointin...
Tuesday, July 05, 2016

Odysseus Started The Industrial Revolution

›
Factory work may have been a commitment device to get everyone to work hard. Odysseus tying himself to the mast was also a commitment device...