June 2008
22 posts
“When the words ‘financial’ or ‘economic’ are typed into...”
– Real Time Economics blog in the WSJ
Do you know what's going on in Zimbabwe?
I’ve been following the situation in Zimbabwe since March, and am surprised by a. how little media attention it has received (that is, until Sunday when Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of the election and sought refuge at the Dutch embassy in Harare), and b. how few people to whom I ask that question say yes.
From what I have read/heard/researched, here’s the story:
Zimbabwe was a...
A: opportunity costs
The opportunity cost of attending the Clapton concert is $10. Right on joojoobee, getlara, biteofpythias, mallisser, fuckinnerd, johncarney, heyitsseszter and everyone else.
Here’s the brief explanation: It is worth $50 to you to see the Dylan concert. However, you would have to spend $40 for the ticket. The difference, $50-$40=$10. By choosing to see Clapton, you’d be giving up a value of $10....
QQ: opportunity costs
An opportunity cost is what you sacrifice by choosing one option or pursuing one endeavor over another. It’s one of the most basic principles of economics and here’s a little quiz from a book I’m reading, The Economic Naturalist, that tests your knowledge. (Explanation to come..)
Suppose you’ve won a free ticket to see an Eric Clapton concert tonight and you can’t...
processed foods (should) keep inflation down
Food inflation is all the rage in the news these days. But here’s something I learned today. Only 2% of the price of processed foods goes to the farmer. In that box of cereal I ate the morning, the actual grain in the box is only two percent of the total value. Well, in Canada at least, where this picture is from (click for larger size).
That’s why Canada and the US have seen such low food...
Your Something May Be Anything →
When you send The Something Store $10, it will send you an item selected randomly from its inventory! Your something will most likely be brand new, though it may also be refurbished or antique.
11,727 somethings have been ordered since 10/28/07. Amazing..
On another note: over 40% of Americans spend more than they earn each year. And 1 in 20 households carry...
America's Best Paying Jobs
Per Forbes’ America’s Best and Worst Paying Jobs, the top ten (+1) are:
Anesthesiologists: $192,780
Surgeons: $191,410
Orthodontists: $185,340
Obstetricians and Gynecologists: $183,600
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons: $178,440
Prosthodontists: $169,360
Internists, General: $167,270
Physicians & Surgeons, Other: $155,150
Family & General Practitioners: $153,640
Chief...
brand tags →
A collective experiment in brand perception. The more often a word is used to describe the brand, the bigger the word is displayed. Pretty cool.
Barack Obama, John McCain, and The Future of...
I really liked Ricky’s look into the corporate tax rate and its effect on Facebook’s prospects.. Though Michael Graetz, a Yale Law Professor who specializes in tax policy, speculates that Obama can’t raise the rate above 20%. Above that, people would lose money and nobody will sell. That means Mark may only pay $900,000,000 in cgt, just a quarter of a billion dollar increase....
Financial Analysis of Peacekeeping
“Every time a conflict in some poor and chaotic place simmers down to the point where peace has a chance, rich countries with an interest in reconstructing that country face a choice: do they merely provide economic aid, or should they also dispatch troops - their own or other countreis’ - to nail down and enforce the peace?”
A cost-benefit financial analysis of the situation in a Copenhagen...
The S Word
There have been four shark attacks in the Pacific in the past couple of months. The first deadly attack was in Solano Beach, California, the next three in Mexico, leaving two dead and one wounded. Needless to say, paddling out this morning was a bit more daunting than usual. Especially because I picked up the OC Register this morning to read that a great white was seen yesterday off Doheny State...
To Drill or Not to Drill
Thursday’s Wall Street Journal displayed the strategy and bias that goes into the layout of a newspaper. We all know that newspapers and media sources have an agenda. But rather than explicitly state its agenda in articles, the WSJ used its layout to imply one thing: we need to drill. First, the “World Economy: Oil Squeeze” page exposes the imminent problems of our major oil...