Sound Economics

Exarcheia is a small neighborhood in Athens, Greece that is for the most part unknown to foreigners. It’s dilapidated buildings and abundance of graffiti don’t characterize a welcoming environment, especially to those unfamiliar with the area. This area however isn’t an impoverished neighborhood or an abandoned suburb but is an entire space of ideological opposition in the form of an anarcho-communist movement. Home to a thriving community of far-left intellectuals, artists, and counter-cultural leaders, this neighborhood is contains several anarchist “squats” or abandoned government buildings that now house refugees, the poor, and victims of the Greek economic collapse. These set-ups Continue reading Where capital goes to die: Examining the Greek Anarchy movement→

Today is the deadline for cities to propose their bids to Amazon in hopes of hosting their new headquarters. The ever-growing corporation promises “up to 50,000 jobs paying an average of $100,000”, and cities all over the United States and Canada want this boost in their economy. All of the cities making a bid can be found here. But what price will these cities pay to get it? Corporate subsidies, or breaks on taxes and other concessions, is what city governments use to entice a company into setting up operations there. Is this big spending worth it for the long-term Continue reading Not Cutting It: Corporate Subsidies Abound as Amazon Looks for HQ2 Spot→

Let’s start this article off by saying, while I can’t say that scientists have proved climate change is real (nobody can really prove anything, even economists and scientists), I think the evidence is convincing enough that even if only 97% of scientists believe in anthropogenic climate change, we should probably still do something about it. 81% of climate economics experts believe that a market solution is critical, given that climate change has been called “the greatest market failure the world has seen,” by Nicholas Stern, an economist and climate researcher. Essentially, there are three economic problems occurring with regard to climate Continue reading Time for a Change: Americans Support a Carbon Tax→

The Republic of Nauru, formerly known as Pleasant Island, is a remote, 8.1 square mile island nation that is located in the Micronesian archipelago. Approximately 200 miles East of Kiribati, the island was originally settled around 1000 BC by the Micronesian and Polynesian people. They remained isolated on the island for nearly 3000 years until in the late 1700’s a British whaling ship, captained by John Fearn, discovered the island and gave it its original name, Pleasant Island. It wouldn’t be until 1888 that the island would see its next visitors when Germany annexed the island nation, as part of Continue reading Western Colonialism, a Pacific Island, and Property Rights→

Many students have expressed discontent with our current voting system, especially as it relates to the ideas of “choosing between two bad options” or “wasting your vote” on a third candidate. Many articles, bills, and petitions have called for electoral reform, along with celebrities such as Lady Gaga. In this article I will go over the economic idea of a social choice rule, or mechanism which describes how we can move from individual preferences to group preferences, or social preferences. For a primer on the economic idea of preferences, see last week’s post, Accounting for Taste: Ice Cream Preferences. One of the best articles Continue reading Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem: Can We Hit a Societal Bullseye?→

“Wherever the Art of Medicine is Loved, there is also a love of Humanity.” -Hippocrates Typical notions of healthcare and medicine are intrinsically linked to benevolence. After all, the modern Hippocratic Oath states that, “I will prevent disease whenever I can.” It seems strange then that the total nominal spending on medicine in the U.S. exceeds $450 billion annually while the global pharmaceutical market is predicted to reach an annual value of $1.12 trillion by 2022. This paradoxical relationship between medicine and profit-maximizing firms begs some interesting economic questions, specifically how the drive to maximize profits impact the consumer’s well-being. Continue reading Intellectual Property Laws in the Pharmaceutical Industry: Facilitating Monopolies or Catalyzing Innovation→