Economic Thinkers

January 22, 2014
decreasing child mortality rates in developing countries
Published by Elaine Schwartz at January 22, 2014
Categories

One Way That the “Poor Beat the Rich”

In just 8 minutes, Hans Rosling shows us that, with child mortality rates, the developing world is making more progress than we might expect. With his […]

Do you like it?
Read more
January 20, 2014
global learning
Published by Elaine Schwartz at January 20, 2014
Categories

The Revolution That Grandma Started

The NYC Miss Subways competition was about a lot more than pretty “girls” (as they were called). To become Miss Subways for a month, applicants had […]

Do you like it?
Read more
January 16, 2014
supply chain
Published by Elaine Schwartz at January 16, 2014
Categories

Connecting Abigail Adams to Janet Yellen

Reading about “touch generations” in Sam Arbesman’s Wired Magazine blog, I realized that Abigail Adams and Janet Yellen were connected. Different generations touch when one’s birth year coincides with someone else’s […]

Do you like it?
Read more
January 13, 2014
Bezos wedding spending
Published by Elaine Schwartz at January 13, 2014
Categories

Marrying Up in China

“There is an opinion that A quality guys will find B quality women, B  quality guys will find C quality women, and C quality men will find D quality women…The people left […]

Do you like it?
Read more
January 11, 2014
consumer spending history
Published by Elaine Schwartz at January 11, 2014
Categories

Happy Birthday to a Great Father (of our economy)

When you sing happy birthday to Alexander Hamilton today, please just think of an upward sloping (logarithmic) economic growth line:   Today, 257–or maybe 259–years ago […]

Do you like it?
Read more
January 5, 2014
Economic Geography British Coastline Mandelbrot
Published by Elaine Schwartz at January 5, 2014
Categories

One Reason That Geography Matters

Have you ever looked closely at Japan and the United Kingdom? Described by geographer Jared Diamond in a fascinating podcast, they look remarkably similar. Today Japan […]

Do you like it?
Read more
January 3, 2014
Economic Geography British Coastline Mandelbrot
Published by Elaine Schwartz at January 3, 2014
Categories

Income Inequality Questions

Seeing economists Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty’s favorite graph of the year at Ezra Klein’s Wonkblog, I thought of Benoit Mandelbrot. The father of fractal geometry, Dr. […]

Do you like it?
Read more
October 22, 2013
French fries, Adam Smith and restaurant mass production
Published by Elaine Schwartz at October 22, 2013
Categories

Restaurant Economics: How to Make 1500 Meals a Day

At 2 am, converging at the delivery entrance of Balthazar in NY’s SoHo are mussels from New Zealand, russet potatoes from Idaho, steak from the Midwest and chicken breast […]

Do you like it?
Read more
May 16, 2012
Published by Elaine Schwartz at May 16, 2012
Categories

Learning From the Low End

Sometimes it’s better to be at the bottom than the top. Explaining, Harvard’s Clay Christensen starts his story with the huge integrated steel firms and ends […]

Do you like it?
Read more
November 17, 2011
Published by Elaine Schwartz at November 17, 2011
Categories

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. […]

Do you like it?
Read more
November 3, 2011
Published by Elaine Schwartz at November 3, 2011
Categories

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 […]

Do you like it?
Read more