Predicting and observing Rio 2016 with unconventional categories, we can use statistics to see the Olympic games through a different lens.…
What Ever Happened to Ethanol?
Challenged by the power of the market, the 2007 mandate from the Congress to encourage biofuel use has created an ethanol glut.…
A Corny Supply and Demand Story
With U.S. corn so cheap, seeing South American corn in domestic corn markets could seem illogical until we look at supply and demand more closely.…
How a Soap Opera Affected Brazil’s Fertility Rate
During the past 40 years, Brazil’s fertility rates declined. One cause was the new values that soap operas conveyed to an uneducated rural population.…
A New Kind of Map Where Norway is Next to Peru
To grasp the huge size of the U.S. GDP we can identify countries that have similar nominal output to individual states like California and Brazil.…
What We Can Learn from Venezuelan Inflation
Shortages, long lines, and panic buying are several ways that hyperinflation is creating chaos for local and foreign firms and consumers in Venezuela.…
Why We Want New iPhones
A competitive strategy, planned obsolescence is controversial. It can spur innovation and growth or represent corporate waste and consumer manipulation.…
A Surprise in the Federal Budget
Told by the World Court to stop the subsidies paid to cotton farmers that distort prices, the U.S. has settled the case by paying Brazilian cotton farmers.…
Expanding How We Measure Inflation
Our CPI measure of the inflation rate has been debated because it could be calculated using a chained CPU, could be real time, and excludes some seniors.…
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.…