Month: November 2015

Recent events in Brussels had me wondering: what is the impact of shutting down a city for a few days? In the wake of the Paris attacks, Brussels (the capital city of Belgium) was largely in the state of lockdown as authorities hunt down suspects and work to mitigate what they describe as an “imminent threat.” I was personally surprised that such a large city would be voluntarily shuttered for any significant amount of time, so I decided to poke around into the economic costs of making such a decision. The situation reminded me of the lockdown of Boston during the 2013 Continue reading The Cost of a Lockdown→

Two Black Friday tidbits as that wild celebration of American consumerism approaches… Black Friday is clearly an American tradition. However, it may surprise you that Black Friday seems to be adopting the hallmark of more traditional holidays: baubles that you pull out of the attic over and over. According to Chron, around 11 percent of all Black Thursday and Black Friday deals that you’ll be seeing this year were re-used from last year. How does that warm glow of nostalgia feel? Although Thanksgiving is a national holiday unique to the United States, Black Friday–even though it originally stems from being the day Continue reading Black Friday Approaches…→

On Monday, I had the privilege to interview the world’s first and only stand-up Economist, Yoram Bauman, Ph.D before he spoke about the second round of the Tacoma Climate Conversation right here at the University of Puget Sound. Not only is he an incredible speaker and comedian, but he is also the founder of CarbonWA, a grassroots initiative advocating for a carbon tax here in Washington. It was incredible being able to talk to an expert on “getting the price right” after writing many articles about the topic because it gave me a dimension of the conversation that is rarely written Continue reading Soundcast Episode 2: Interview with Yoram Bauman→

Inspired by Planet Money’s recent episode on the Trans Pacific Partnership, I decided to look through the text of the deal… from a Logger perspective. So, I brought up the “US Tariff Elimination-Schedule” and did a quick ctrl-f search for “axe.” I have put the Logger-relevant section of the table in the post below, but first here are the definitions of a few acronyms and codes that appear there: customs duties on originating goods provided for in the items in staging category EIF shall be eliminated entirely, and such goods shall be duty-free on the date of entry into force Continue reading TPP: A Logger Perspective→

The other day I called United Airlines to see if I could catch the second leg of my flight home from Scotland, at London Heathrow since I would already be there at the time of my departure. They responded with a, “yes, but this change will be a fee of $800”, to which I declined as it was more than half the ticket price. This got me thinking, why would an airline charge me so much to not board part of my flight, even if I paid for the entire ticket. The answer is hidden city ticketing.   Hidden city Continue reading How Flying Further Can Save You Money→

This week, I have decided to forgo spotlighting an issue or an article on the blog. Instead, I’m going to share one of my all-time favorite sources of economic tidbits: APM Marketplace’s Final Note. This feed is updated approximately every week day. It is a written-out version of Kai Rysdall’s closing segment to their radio show, which is only half a minute or so of air time. Thus, the material is brief… but it still packs a pretty good punch. Here are a few of my favorite more recent tidbits from the Final Note feed: This final note on the way Continue reading APM Marketplace’s Final Note→

ECONorthwest, the largest economics consulting firm headquartered in the Pacific Northwest, is offering a paid internship for current undergraduate or graduate students in Seattle. The intern will work closely with project managers on all aspects of our work, including technical and administrative tasks. Technical analysis will include: research, data collection and analysis, mapping and spatial analysis, and report writing. The deadline for application is November 15th, so go to LoggerJobs (ID #27490) and apply!

In recent news, Tacoma voters just passed city Initiative 1B, which gradually raises the minimum wage for Tacoma from its current $9.47 to $12 over the next three years. They chose this over the options of going straight to $15 this January, and of doing nothing. That makes our first ever podcast outdated already! In our interview with UPS’ Executive Director of Community Engagement and Associate Vice President for Business Services, John Hickey, we asked how the University might react to the two different increases if they were enacted. Give it a listen!