Behavioral Economics

November 17, 2011

Ben Franklin’s Turkey

The bald eagle is our national bird but, according to Ben Franklin, the turkey should have been. In a letter to his daughter, he explains why. […]

November 12, 2011

Presidential Wagers

 Looking at the University of Iowa GOP Iowa Caucus Market, you could create these headlines: “Gingrich gains.” “Cain crashes.” Perry plummets. Romney remains. With quotes indicated […]

November 9, 2011

“Tweakers”

Referring to Steve Jobs, most of us think of innovation and entrepreneurship. Like Thomas Friedman in “(Steve) Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, Jobs,” we imagine business starters and […]

November 3, 2011

Are You A Good Investor?

Good investing takes us to our emotions. But not quite how you might expect. Our brains don’t like random events. Instead, we prefer patterns, especially pleasing […]

November 2, 2011

Default Deja Vu

Between its independence in 1829 and 2006, Greece has had 5 defaults or debt reschedulings that occupied a total of 50.6 years.  Described by Rogoff and […]

October 18, 2011

The Blackberry Disruption

Last week’s Blackberry blackout saved lives. In Dubai, traffic accidents dipped 20%. For Abu Dhabi, the decrease was 40%. Considering that there is approximately 1 traffic […]

October 16, 2011

More Sole Rights

Should a musician be happy with file-sharing and piracy? Maybe. According to a recent study of counterfeits, certain businesses should welcome “fakes.” The study looked at […]