Archive for the 'Economics' Category

Hayek Verses Keynes Rap Anthem

Filed under Economics

The Hayek vs. Keyes rap battle hit the interwebs yesterday.

If it wasn’t for Russ Roberts being behind the project I would have asked myself, “Why? Why?” Roberts has written a few novels where economics plays a role, yet they contain interesting characters that make the stories enjoyable in themselves.
Roberts is also a solid economist […]

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Oliver Williamson and Elinor Ostrom Win 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics

Filed under Economics

Oliver Williamson and Elinor Ostrom won the 2009 Nobel Prize in economics. Williamson is a name you should’ve run across if you’ve taken intermediate microeconomics or industrial organization courses. His worked in “new institutional economics” stood on top of Nobel laureate Ronald Coase’s work on why firms exist in the first place. The Nobel Prize […]

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Secret of Success: Delay Gratification

Filed under Economics

For centuries patience and rejecting instant gratification have been known as keys to success. Now, we have Joachim de Posada offering experimental proof.

Such virtue would help ease a lot of our current problems.

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In Defense of Wonder Bread

Filed under Economics, Food

Louise Fresco argues that foodstuffs like Wonder Bread (which are awesome for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches) are how we’ll feed billions with fewer and fewer people.

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Too Much Supply for Inauguration Rentals

Filed under Economics

Dreams of making handfuls of cash from President-elect Obama’s inauguration have gone POOF. That people, is economics in action.
“Inaugural Rentals Begging For Takers”

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Federal Reserve Moves Into Uncharted Territory

Filed under Economics

What’ more interesting than the Federal Reserve dropping short term interest rates to a range of 0-0.25% is what creative things Ben Bernanke will do next when the Fed finds their latest effort has been ineffective. Right now, the Fed is pushing on a string. More credit and liquidity isn’t instilling confidence in financial markets. […]

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Douglas Rushkoff: Economically Challenged

Filed under Economics

Douglas Rushkoff needs to stick to media studies and being a techno-guru. Because he sure doesn’t have a clue about economics. His “brilliant” idea is for local communities to invent their own currencies:
Promote and research the development of local, complementary currencies to supplement economic activity from the bottom up, allowing communities to create value, and […]

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Aid-Military Complex

Foreign aid critic William Easterly sounds skeptical of the latest trend in helping the world’s poor: join development at the hip with the military:
Imagine Lenin’s puzzlement if he were alive to see the territories of the globe divided up not among capitalists but among foreign aid bureaucrats. I am exaggerating a little; but a surprising […]

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UnitedHealth Sells Health Insurance Option

Filed under Economics

In an attempt to satisfy consumers who are worried they might not be able to buy health insurance in the future UnitedHealth has a new product:
For these economically uncertain times, the UnitedHealth Group has a first-of-its-kind product: the right to buy an individual health policy at some point in the future even if you become […]

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Hedge Funds’ Future

Filed under Economics

What happens to the hedge funds after the dust settles on the financial crisis?
So much for that. The hedge fund mystique died with the crash of 2008. Youthful traders and big shots from investment banks won’t soon be given billions to invest based on their résumés. Mystery and opacity will be a negative, not cause […]

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The Wild World of Intrade

The idea behind prediction markets is collecting the a wide variety of information and opinions to predict events. The gathering of scattered bits of knowledge is suppose to result in better predictions. The macro result might be based on reason but digging into the individual grains of emotions and rumors show people have their own […]

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Trade Credit

Filed under Economics

The disruptions in the credit markets have begun to affect international trade. It’s where I’ve learned about something called “trade credit” which finances ships traveling across oceans. Increases in lending rates have hurt Asian economies:
Instead of relying on broad capital markets as is common in American and Europe, they seek credit in more traditional ways: […]

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Trust and the Economy

Filed under Economics

Prior to talk of economic concepts as capital theory and monetary policy we should step back and examine the fundamental needs for a functioning economy that provides desired goods and services at the most efficient prices. We need to step back from the abstractions of equilibrium models and high-level mathematics and get at the underlying […]

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Don’t Abandon the Stock Market

Filed under Economics

Even with the dramatic drop in stock prices it’s not wise to abandon the markets:
With stocks in the tank, who wants to hear about how important they are to saving for retirement, college, or your dream home theater? Big mistake. The only possible reason to be down on stocks as a long-term savings vehicle is […]

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Paul Krugman Wins Nobel Prize in Economics

Filed under Economics

Paul Krugman is surely one of the most controversial Nobel Prize winners in some time. Let me first state the guy has a research track record to be a yearly contender for the Nobel Prize in economics. Once upon a time before Krugman became an unreadable Left-wing shrill he wrote interesting, if still center-left, books […]

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