Economic Ideas

May 6, 2014

The Rotten Kid Theorem and Other Gary Becker Ideas

Gary Becker image courtesy of University of Chicago. All too often, if you say you are looking at the economics of the family, people assume you […]

May 4, 2014

Surprising Hand-To-Mouth Households

Close to one third of all households (38 million) in the US live hand-to-mouth. Like me, perhaps you have always assumed that a hand-to-mouth (HtM) household […]

May 1, 2014

How To Divide the Rent, a Cake and a Country

Assume for a moment that you have just rented a 4th floor walk-up apartment for $3000 with 2 friends. One bedroom is mid-sized and near a […]

April 28, 2014

Why Do We Need More King Peggys?

Our Monday Gender Issue: Having a woman as the king of an African fishing village can make a big difference. During 2008, a secretary who works […]

April 27, 2014

When Did We Get “Tough Love” From the Federal Reserve?

Demonstrating Russia’s current plight, this graph so perfectly illustrates stagflation: When GDP sinks and inflation increases, the stagflation that results is tough to cure. If monetary […]