Random Articles

• Just Ignore it and it’ll be a Market Listening to the latest EconTalk Podcast, on the economics of organ donations, the following exchange caught my ear. Russ Roberts: “Markets tend to organize themselves, that’s the marvelous thing about them, if you leave them alone.” Richard Epstein: “If you leave them alone or better, if you know what’s going on and participate in them.”
• Is Closed a Cultural Benefit? This weekend, I caught up with a college friend in central Wisconsin. Starbucks recently opened their first storefront in Wausau. Given Starbucks’ consistency and my lack of knowledge of other options, I suggested we meet there. “How about something local, like Jeannie’s Cafe?”, Tom asked. I’m always up for tasting the local flavor and we planned to
• I Bet It’s Self-Fulfilling Back in May, Barry Ritholtz bet James Pethokoukis that we are in a recession. From my view and the numbers I’ve seen, the downturn is concentrated in the housing sector. A good thing. Unfortunately, housing is a huge percentage of our overall GDP and it completely collapsed. Reminds me of early 2001, when the tech sector
• A Middle Man’s a Middle Man “Apple is no different than Best Buy, Wal-Mart, or RIAA….No modern consumer is going to stop listening to their favorite band because Circuit City doesn’t carry their CD.” - Benn Jordan Benn’s post is one of the many articles online showing how little compensation musicians receive from the business organizations that are said to be supporting
• The Economics of Podcasting First off, this post defines podcasting is an effective way to deliver highly niche audio to a very enthusiastic audience (the World English Bible translated into Klingon or Tips for Triathletes in the Southwestern US for example). Secondly, the numbers used here are rough and make for easy math. Let’s say you’re making one show a week