My new Starbucks has a drive-through. If you look at a high shelf near the window through which the baristas hand the coffee and food to drivers, you see a screen with little cars and numbers. Changing from green to yellow…
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.
What's the Economic Difference Between a Street and a Road?
Our story starts outside of Cleveland during the beginning of the 20th century. With the 4,000 acres that Oris P. and Mantis J. Van Sweringen purchased from the Society of Shakers, the 2 brothers decided to create a planned suburban community.…
Using Economics To Deal With Restaurant No-Shows
At one of my favorite restaurants in Nantucket, you can call at any time during the summer to get a 6:00 reservation. But if you want to eat at 7:30 or 9:00, you have to line up outside on that…
An Unexpected Cost of Climate Change?
Our Wednesday Environment Focus By Madeleine Vance, guest blogger and student at Kent Place School; edited by Elaine Schwartz Global Warming has become more than just a threat to the environment. In the movie “Carbon Nation,” former army colonel Dan Nolan…
Production Possibility Frontiers: Entering (and Exiting) a Discovery Void
After technological innovation multiplies, might the pace of discovery slow down? Think of the history of antibiotics. Starting with the Sulfa drugs that were first discovered during the 1930s, the new antibiotic timeline is congested until 1962. Yes, recently, new antibiotics classes were introduced.…
Gender Issues: Literate Women
For millennia, men have tried to stop women from learning to read. Before we look back, I wanted to share these World Bank maps that let us see the status of female literacy, 2009-2013 Female Literacy in Developing Nations: Worldwide ratios of female…
Ethical Dilemmas for College Endowments
The closer you look at ethical investing for university endowments, the more you see the tradeoffs. The headline coverage began when Stanford announced it would “not make direct investments in coal mining companies.” Explaining, Stanford’s President John Hennessy said, “Stanford has a responsibility as a global citizen…
One Reason That the Common App and Standard Oil Are Similar
Who would have expected the Sherman Antitrust Act to relate to college applications? In 1890, the Sherman Antitrust Act was passed because large firms were acting “in restraint of trade.” Supporting Adam Smith, the goal was to control business size so that the market…
Handy Ukraine Facts
When 2066 Americans were asked where Ukraine is located, as the dots on the following map show, the replies were rather scattered. While 16% of the respondents knew their geography, the rest were off by an average of 1800 miles. The redder…
The Monetary Policy Mistakes of a Babysitting Co-op
There once was a French economist whose name was Say. Proclaiming that “Supply Creates Its Own Demand,” Jean-Baptiste Say (1767-1832) entered economic history with Say’s Law. All he meant was that workers are also consumers. The money you receive for producing a good or a service…