Month: February 2017

Generally, when an economics student is taking the introduction to Macroeconomics Theory the most commonly used word that will come out of the professor’s mouth is Gross Domestic Product (GDP). GDP is a term defined as the value of all final goods and serviced a country produces in a given period. This monetary value enacts as an indicator of how the overall economy is doing. However, two other factors play a role in what a sustainable economy looks like. These factors are 1) inflation: the change of prices over time and 2) the unemployment rate. In the eyes of economist’s, Continue reading Possible Economic Boom?→

So far, this series has examined recent trends in digital advertising, and covered various approaches to increasing digital ad revenue. This installment will take a look at the apparent trajectory of this industry, and some of the challenges that publishers and content creators face. At the moment, the future direction of digital advertising is in question. Agencies are being founded with the express purpose of selling unblockable advertising, while other companies opt for paywalls or simply barring adblock users from accessing their sites in the first place. Some companies such as Twitch have found success with new ad serving technology, Continue reading The Uncertain Future of Digital Advertising→

The minimum wage in Washington has been of hot discussion for the past couple of years as there had been a push for higher wages for workers that had been relying on low-wage jobs. In the November election, Initiative 1433 passed across Washington to push the minimum wage up to $13.50 per hour by 2020. In other areas like Seattle and Sea-Tac, the rate can be as high as $15. Many businesses do not exactly support the increase, as they have to find a way to balance out the costs. Well, it seems that several restaurants across Washington are combatting Continue reading Restauraunts Passing the Buck to the Customer due to Minimum Wage Increase?→

India is one of the fastest growing economies, with not only a large population, but also a serious poverty issue. According to The World Bank, in 2009 India’s poverty rate hit a high of 31%!  Although it has decreased since then, the poverty rate is still quite significantly high. Generally most approaches to decrease poverty are rarely sufficient and cannot produce any significantly transformational results. Since India has evidently struggled to close the poverty gap, recently reports from the Indian government have expressed interest in creating a universal basic income. Universal basic income is an extremely uncommon approach that in theory distributes Continue reading The Cost Benefit Ratio of Universal Basic Income: India’s Dream to Close the Poverty Gap→

This is a continuation of our ongoing series investigating unblockable online advertising. Last week we took a look at Twitch.tv’s successful attempt to rework their site to support unblockable ads, and this week will be examining Facebook, the challenges they face, and their less-than-successful attempts to circumvent adblockers. Facebook boasts a tremendous number of active users, surpassing 1.86 billion in the 4th quarter of 2016. A recent article from TechCrunch (linked at the end of this piece) states that Facebook earned $8.81 billion in revenue in Q4 2016, vastly exceeding analyst estimates. Despite this tremendous success, Facebook has warned that Continue reading Facebook Struggles with the Future of Digital Ads Despite Massive Revenue→