Random Articles

• Drive Vague There’s something appealing about removing complexity - and the costs to maintain that complexity - to more effectively improve the behavior of a complex system. “The assumption is that drivers are accustomed to owning the road and rarely pay attention to speed limits or caution signs anyway. Removing traffic lights and erasing lane markers, the thinking
• 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.”
• Real Estate Agents and Dodo Birds Steven and Stephen, the dynamic duo behind Freaknomics have a bit on Real Estate Agents being added to the Endangered Species list in the New York Times. Nothing new to anyone with a little understanding of the real estate market and how the internet has dissolved both travel agents and stock brokers. The more conversations I
• 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
• Looking Up  “…the number of people in households that bring in more than $100,000 also rose from 12 percent to 24 percent. There was no increase in the percentage of people in households making less than $30,000. So the entire ‘decline’ of the middle class came from people moving up the income ladder. For married couples, median