Author Archives: Cole Driscoll

Stopping Population Growth: “Get Used to it”

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Have you ever thought about how many humans there are on this planet? The simple answer is a lot. But by digging a little further, it is evident that the Earth’s population is continuing to grow at astonishing speeds. The world’s population was recorded by WorldBank.org to be at 3 billion in 1960 and 7.125 billion in 2013. BBC estimates that the population will grow to 10 billion by 2083. Many people have seen this as an obvious problem, but what is to be done? Professor of International Health at Karolinska Institutet and co-founder of Gapminder, Hans Rosling makes the case Continue reading Stopping Population Growth: “Get Used to it”→

It’s a High Risk Business: Music Festivals

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In the past decade music festivals have become bigger and bigger as attendance at major festivals continuing to grow. One of larger festivals in the US is Coachella Music and Arts Festival located in southern California. Coachella started out with a crowd of 25,000 people in 1999 and has grown to more than 600,000 attendees in two weekends. It’s not just Coachella that has record breaking attendance, the Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas recorded 400,000 attendees in a single weekend. With attendance numbers like this it is worthwhile to take a look into incentives for companies to organize these Continue reading It’s a High Risk Business: Music Festivals→

Venezuela’s Crisis

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Since 2005 Latin American countries have seen an increase in economic growth, but now there seems to be a stall in poverty reduction. One country that is experiencing disastrous poverty and inflation rates is Venezuela. The country has been devastated from inflation rates at 140% and a poverty rate that jumped up to 32.1% in 2013. On top of economic distress, the extremely low price of petrol oil has been hurting Venezuela and it is now becoming apparent. Due to this economic decline the Venezuelan President, Nicolas Maduro, has increased the price of exported petrol oil from $0.01 to $0.60 Continue reading Venezuela’s Crisis→

Growth After a Recession

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The role of government always seems to be the dominant topic of any political debate, especially when examining the US economy on a macro scale. What should the government do to mitigate market failures? How should they support consumers and producers alike? But the biggest question that separates the left from the right side is how big of a role should the government have in the American economy. It was just 8 years ago when a recession hit the US. This recession was named one of the worst global financial crises by former head of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke. Continue reading Growth After a Recession→

How Much Are Microbreweries Worth?

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In my earlier post I discussed the rapid increase of the craft brewery market and the integration of the microbreweries into a bigger realm of the beer industry. But since then new developments have occurred. Yesterday it was announced that San Diego’s Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits Company is being bought for $1 Billion. The buyer is alcoholic beverage conglomerate, Constellation Brands Inc. This buy out is Constellation’s biggest brand addition since 2012 when it purchased the remaining 50 percent interest in Crown Imports LLC for $1.85 Billion. As Bart Watson, Chief Economist for the Brewers Association, put it in Continue reading How Much Are Microbreweries Worth?→

Priorities and Minimum Wage Increase

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Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles have all made steps to increase minimum wage. Now Tacoma seems be following suit as well and the community is in a buzz. On October 8th, I joined fellow Sound Economics writer Jesse Kreutzer and University of Puget Sound professor Andrew Monaco on a trip to Pacific Lutheran University for a public debate about the recent addition to the 2015 November ballot in Tacoma. The debate contained both sides of the argument, #PLU15NOW and #PLUNO15. The side in favor was research analyst, Vince Kueter and PLU senior debater Angie Tinker. Both were speaking in Continue reading Priorities and Minimum Wage Increase→

Spotting the Technical Difficulties (Part 1)

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Turn on the music and crank the jams. Music is a very prominent form of expression that has been woven into many people’s lives today. When I sit down at my desk to write this blog post, I instinctively grab my smart phone first and turn on some form of music. Whether it is music made solely from MIDI generated sounds or simply a musician with a guitar, I proceed to use electronic devices to produce the music that I love. But it’s not my Apple iPhone 5 that is giving me this music. It is an application called Spotify. Continue reading Spotting the Technical Difficulties (Part 1)→

A Perfectly “Hip” Competitive Market

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Hipster. There is a lot of requirements for a person to be able to be associated with this word. Vintage clothing, vinyl records, interest in independent and underground bands. And craft beer. Many different industries have been impacted positively by this new movement, especially microbreweries residing in the beer universe. A microbrewery or craft brewer has been defined by the Brewers Association as being “those that produce fewer than six million barrels a year and are less than 25 percent owned by a large beverage maker.” The demand for these craft beers has been rising in the last few years Continue reading A Perfectly “Hip” Competitive Market→