Will The Gulf Disaster Be A Boon For The Ethanol Lobby?

Can A Soda Tax Begin To Remedy The Obesity Epidemic?

The World Economy In A Nutshell

Plummeting Marijuana Prices In Northern California

States Ease Restrictions On Vice To Fill Budget Gaps

The Average American Family

Place your cursor over the graphic and click.

Sometimes It's Rational To Be Irrational

Where Your Tax Dollars Will Go

For context, here's the spending breakdown for some of the big-ticket items in 2009, based on the numbers in this CBO report:

Defense, 18%
Social Security, 18%
Medicare, 12%
Medicaid, 7%
Interest, 5%

Price Gouging?

Just The Tip Of The Iceberg

This link will take you to an explanation of the SEC's case against Goldman Sachs.

China's Real Estate Bubble

There's a lot of pressure being placed on China to allow its currency to appreciate. This is reminiscent of the pressure placed on Japan in the mid-1980s that served as the lead move toward its eventual lost decade. The link takes you to an article from a Japanese economist offering China some advice.

A Pernicious Disconnect

Will the E-book Save Reading?

Where Do State Revenues Come From?

McDonald's a Normal Good

The Giant Stone Currency on Yap Island

Learn These, Or Else!!!!

Ten Key Principles in Economics

Everything has a cost. There is no free lunch. There is always a trade-off.

Cost is what you give up to get something. In particular, opportunity cost is cost of the tradeoff.

One More. Rational people make decisions on the basis of the cost of one more unit (of consumption, of investment, of labor hour, etc.).

Incentives work. People respond to incentives.

Open for trade. Trade can make all parties better off.

Markets Rock! Usually, markets are the best way to allocate scarce resources between producers and consumers.

Intervention in free markets is sometimes needed. (But watch out for the law of unintended effects!)

Concentrate on productivity. A country’s standard of living depends on how productive its economy is.

Sloshing in money leads to higher prices. Inflation is caused by excessive money supply.

!! Caution: In the short run, falling prices may lead to unemployment, and rising employment may lead to inflation.
permanent link

IOUSA

President Obama's 2011 Budget

CengageBrain.com Launches Money-Saving Textbook Rental Options for Students

CengageBrain.com Launches Money-Saving Textbook Rental Options for Students -- STAMFORD, Conn., Jan. 11 /PRNewswire/ --