Sound Economics

In this final Sound Economics episode, Betina Elijah and Vale Discuss the Avian Flu, the FRED, and the worldwide matcha shortage. Thank you for listening! The Big Mac Index https://www.statista.com/statistics/274326/big-mac-index-global-prices-for-a-big-mac/

In This week’s episode. Vale, Betina, and Elijah discuss online shopping, sports’ economic impact on development, and the holiday season’s economics. Enjoy the podcast and your break!

Spotify wrapped is rolling around the corner and if you are like thousands of listeners, you’ve been waiting for this all year. When thinking about Spotify and why it is so competitive in the music streaming industry, the biggest idea that came to my mind was its focus on user experience. If you don’t know what Spotify wrapped is, it is a one-a-year in-depth wrap-up of each user’s listening history and has become very popular over the past few years. Each year there are new features added to each user Spotify wrapped portfolio. Each user gets information on their total Continue reading Spotify Wrapped→

In November, Millions of supporters from almost 20 countries participate in Movember, a month-long process of raising money for men’s health issues such as Prostate Cancer, Testicular Cancer, and Mental Health. People like Myself shave off all of their facial hair and then grow a “Mo,” a mustache, for the entire month of November while raising funds for this charity. As Movember is very important to me, I have participated in this month of charitable giving since 2021 and intend to do so for the rest of my life. As an Econ student, charitable giving from NGOs, like Movember, classified Continue reading Modeling Charity Through Public Goods Models→

Recent news articles have highlighted the change to four day work weeks for some in Iceland. While this is news to the rest of the world, this study has been long-going with trials documented from 2015 to 2019 and most recently, in 2020 until 2022 where 51% of workers in the country were offered and accepted working four days of the week with no loss in pay. Last year it was reported that Iceland had the fastest economic growth out of the European countries and also has one of the lowest unemployment rates. Iceland’s economy expanded by 5% in 2023. Continue reading Should we switch to four day work weeks?→

Betina, Eli, and Valé discuss the new announcement regarding student loan forgiveness, sustainable shopping, and this year’s Nobel Prize in Economics winners. Link to U.S. debt clock: https://www.usdebtclock.org/ Link to the Honnold Foundation: https://www.honnoldfoundation.org/#mission

Eli and Betina discuss Marijuana legalization costs and benefits as well as the economic impact of the conflicts in the Middle East.

Dr. Bruce D. Mann, a beloved Economics professor at the University of Puget Sound, passed away on October 1st at the age of 78 from leukemia. This post is my attempt to highlight Dr. Mann’s remarkable life and contributions to his university and county. Bruce graduated from Antioch College with a BA in Economics before spending two years in Iran with the Peace Corps. He then received his PhD in Economics from Indiana University and started his lifelong career teaching at UPS in 1974. I was lucky enough to be in Dr. Mann’s 300-level microeconomics class before his passing, where Continue reading The Life of Dr. Bruce Mann→

One of the biggest supergiants in the entertainment industry, Disney, is struggling with decreased demand for their amusement parks. It’s not only Disney’s amusement parks which are down in ticket sales, across the world people are going to amusement parks less. Disney has the highest amusement park ticket sales around the world, with Magic Kingdom and Disneyland Anaheim leading with around 17 million ticket sales per year. Disney’s amusement parks got a 2% increase in revenue but a 3% decrease in operating profit. This isn’t great for the company as they were planning to spend $60 billion over the next Continue reading Less People are Going to Disney’s Theme Parks→