Economic Ideas

Much more than money, economics is about tradeoffs. Thinking economically involves cost and benefit, marginal analysis and seeing that there is no free lunch. Econlife tries to convey these economic ideas, which serve as the foundation of economics and help people make decisions personally, professionally and as voters.

Why Dinner Guests Say Thank You With Wine, Not Cash

Called repugnant transactions, there are some behaviors in which we should not engage that can involve money or moral outrage.

When a (Social Security) COLA Is Not Sweet Enough

Although Social Security Cost-of-Living Adjustments (COLAs) are at recent highs, they don’t reflect inflation’s impact on seniors.

The Smaller But Enticing Bank Failure Facts You Want To Know

Moving from big banking collapse facts, we need the smaller ones to complete the picture of where we have been and where we might go.

The Economic Half of a Sandwich

More than food, a sandwich can take us to the obesity economics that explain why parts of the world eat too much.

Why We Want More (Academy Award Winning) Actors

Although yesterday, Academy Award diversity was boosted by Everything Everywhere All at Once, still the numbers are low.

6 Facts: All We Need to Know About Bank Runs

With the Silicon Valley Bank’s (SVB) collapse, two people are smiling but most are not. One co-founder of Mentra, a start-up, was supposed to transfer to SVB the massive amount of cash his new company had just received from a…

Why the Swiss Matterhorn Matters

Decisions made by Toblerone’s parents company mean that the Swiss chocolate bar will need to shed some of its “Swissness.”

How the Gender Gap Has Barely Budged

Looking back 110 years from last Friday (March 3, 1913), we would have seen the Woman Suffrage Procession in Washington, D.C. The thousands of marchers had a larger than expected audience because the Wilson inauguration was the next day. While…

What We Are Drinking

In the United States and Globally, water is #1 for beverage consumption but then the two diverge, perhaps with some surprises.

The Surprising Ways that Governments Get Money

Thinking of how governments fund all they do, we usually think of taxes. But there is much more. Government Revenue U.S. States Desperate for cash, in 2010, Arizona’s governor sold the state capitol. The deal included the House and Senate,…