Demand, Supply, and Markets

October 14, 2014

The Unexpected Consequences of More Efficient Lighting

Like 19th century English coal, more efficient and cheap LED lights can mean people and businesses use it more because of the lower opportunity cost.

September 30, 2014

A Solution for Too Few Doctors: More Patience

Decreases in supply, increases in demand and legislative price ceilings are resulting in "network adequacy" problems for U.S. healthcare systems.

September 24, 2014

What Do iPhones and Pencils Have in Common?

Whether looking at the supply chain for a pencil or an iPhone 6, we see globalization because price system incentives create cooperation.

September 14, 2014

The Nudge Toward a Goldilocks Savings Rate

We need to raise the low U.S. savings rate with new incentives like a lottery on savings deposits because households and business investment need savings.

September 3, 2014

Using Prediction Markets to Catch Match-Fixing at Wimbledon

When supply and demand in tennis match prediction markets created illogical prices, researchers said that 3 matches at Wimbledon might have been fixed.

August 28, 2014

The Path of the Shifting Center of Global Economic Power

Led by Chinese economic growth and other emerging markets, the center of economic gravity is moving eastward from the developed world to Asia.

August 12, 2014

What Refrigerators Can Tell Us About Global Markets

In refrigerators in developing nations, we can see the impact of affluence on their diet and on supply and demand that will change worldwide food prices.

August 4, 2014

The Spillover from Refrigerators in China

The spread of refrigeration in China has positive and negative externalities that relate to household diets, greenhouse gases and transport and home waste.

July 31, 2014

Argentina's (Long) Default History

With Argentina again defaulting on her sovereign debt, she is violating the sanctity of contracts and lessened her borrowing ability at home and globally.

July 27, 2014

Three "Tear-Water" Graphs

The U.S. has had an economic recovery from the Great Recession with sluggish GDP growth, a worrisome output gap and slowly diminishing unemployment.

July 17, 2014

John Stuart Mill on Affordable Health Care

A child prodigy, 19th century economist John Stuart Mill said in his Autobiography that, “I have no remembrance of the time when I began Greek; I […]

July 14, 2014

Adam Smith and Traffic Lights

Located 30 miles from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, the island of Nantucket has no traffic lights. Instead, drivers respond to stop signs, rotaries, and courtesy. More often […]