Macroeconomics

February 16, 2014

What Can We Learn From Downton Abbey Economics?

Downton Abbey can tell us a lot about the British economy…but not everything. We know the aristocracy is struggling. Many of the 700 families who had […]

February 13, 2014

Problems With Grade Deflation

The number of hours we study is down and our grades are up. Between 1961 and 2003, full time college students diminished their study time from […]

February 12, 2014

The Cost of Conservation

By Madeleine Vance, guest blogger and student at Kent Place School. Saving water is supposed to allow us to cut down costs. For the drought-stricken city […]

February 9, 2014

Problems With the Unemployment Rate

Almost everyone is saying the unemployment rate is a problem. At 6.6% and with job creation at 113,000, the numbers reflect a troubled jobs market. The […]

February 6, 2014

A Surprising Connection Between Tennessee and the Affordable Care Act

There is probably a tradeoff between health insurance and the demand for jobs. During 2005 in Tennessee, the demand for jobs increased when 170,000 people lost their Medicaid […]

February 5, 2014

1930s Noise Pollution

In 1932, the NYC Noise Abatement Commission received a letter from Mr. N. Schmuck of 137 Milton Street in Brooklyn about the noise from a nearby […]

February 4, 2014

Brazil’s World Cup To-Do List

Preparing its transportation infrastructure for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, Brazil has one giant to-do list. In the air and on the ground, it […]

February 2, 2014

The Reason That Certain Quarterbacks Earn More

A 3.2 difference in a facial symmetry score can mean an extra $378,000 in  pay for a quarterback. According to research from economist David Berri on […]

January 31, 2014

Why Do Young Adults Live With Their Parents?

In Slovakia, Bulgaria, Greece, Malta and Italy, young people, age 25-34, live with their parents. But not in Denmark, Finland Sweden, and Norway. Below you can see the country […]

January 30, 2014

Have We Halved the Deficit?

In the State-of-the-Union, President Obama said, “Our deficits–cut by more than half.” Looking at the federal deficit as a percent of GDP, we can say that the […]

January 23, 2014

One Reason That $1.1 Trillion is Not So Much

The Congress just agreed on $1.1 trillion in federal spending. But let’s look a bit more closely… Each year, I give my class a federal budget […]

January 22, 2014

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 […]