Environment

September 15, 2015
impact of recycling
Published by Elaine Schwartz at September 15, 2015
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Why Doing Good is Not Always Easy

By recognizing the tradeoffs of recycling, preserving endangered species and improving world health, doing good could become more productive.

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August 30, 2015
Published by Elaine Schwartz at August 30, 2015
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Why a Life Needs a Price Tag

Although it seems callous, for safety regulation like speed limits and for victims' compensation like 9/11 we need to quantify the value of a life.

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August 12, 2015
Weekly Economic New Roundup and tall building construction
Published by Elaine Schwartz at August 12, 2015
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How to Deal With Skyscraper Shadows

Whenever a new skyscraper is built, we can ask whether its shadow violates our property rights when it eliminates the sunlight in a city's parks.

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August 2, 2015
Sanitation gap and human capital
Published by Elaine Schwartz at August 2, 2015
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The World’s Sanitation Gap

A production possibilities graph can display the land, labor and capital underutilization that inadequate sanitation creates and indicate a constrained GDP.

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July 29, 2015
weekly economic news roundup and gasoline prices
Published by Elaine Schwartz at July 29, 2015
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Paying More at the Gas Pump

Because of a low gasoline tax, the Highway Trust Fund does not have enough money to maintain the transportation infrastructure of highways and mass transit.

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July 23, 2015
Everyday Economics: and garbage recycling regulation
Published by Elaine Schwartz at July 23, 2015
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Exposing What You Hide in Your Garbage

Weighing cost and benefit for Seattle's recycling environmental regulation involves privacy, dollars, time, and respect for the law and our environment.

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June 5, 2015
It's Tough To Solve the Poaching ProblemNeither the market nor a regulatory approach has solved the problem of poaching in Africa.
Published by Elaine Schwartz at June 5, 2015
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A Poaching Problem that Regulation Hasn’t Solved

The market solutions and regulatory approaches used to solve the problem of elephant poaching have not worked for wildlife conservation in Africa.

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February 20, 2015
everyday economics and the birth rate
Published by Elaine Schwartz at February 20, 2015
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Part 2: What To Do When More People Are Old

Facing an aging population and more entitlements, countries that are encouraging more births to expand the labor force might be creating a bigger problem.

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December 26, 2014
A part of the money supply, currency wears out, is shredded and then recycled or destroyed.
Published by Elaine Schwartz at December 26, 2014
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How the Fed Solves the Old Money Problem

Part of keeping the money supply at the right level involves the Fed monitoring the paper money that enters circulation and recycling cash that leaves it.

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December 22, 2014
Everyday economics and the cost of cheap parking.
Published by Elaine Schwartz at December 22, 2014
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The Seven Ways We Pay For Free Parking

Including congestion, wasted gas, time and emissions, cheap parking creates negative externalities that variable pricing of parking spaces can eliminate.

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November 30, 2014
Everyday Economics — Oil stories
Published by Elaine Schwartz at November 30, 2014
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Three Graphs That Tell the Whole Oil Story

Following the law of supply, U.S. shale oil firms will lower output because OPEC is letting price plummet but airlines on demand side like lower prices.

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