Sound Economics

There is no doubt that Amazon is a massive company, with sales accounting for more than half of every new dollar spent online in America. According to The Economist, many shareholders believe that this is just the beginning for Amazon’s dominance, as the firm’s share price has increased by 173% since early 2015, and Amazon holds a market capitalization of approximately $400 billion, making it the fifth most valuable firm in the world. The Economist also notes that despite these incredible numbers, 92% of Amazon’s value comes from profits that are expected to be made after 2020, indicating that investors Continue reading Can Amazon Meet Investors’ Massive Expectations?→

When looking at a snapshot of the market for art supplies, you’ll find that in January the demand for art supplies when way up. Through the week of Jan. 15, poster and foam board sales went up by 33 and 42 percent, respectively. The sales led to a revenue of $4.1m for these presentation boards. Glue was up 27 percent. Permanent markers saw a 12 percent rise. Why would this be happening? More science fairs? Teachers only grading on physical presentations? A more realistic and impressive reason is behind the surge says Leen Nsouli of NPD (a firm analyzing the Continue reading Art Supplies Demand on the Rise?→

Microeconomics throughout the years has always been ridiculed by other scientists, such as philosopher of science Alexander Rosenberg, for its seemingly weak ability to create valid empirical predictions or explanations. Although those are outside critiques, truth be told, economists also argue over the validity of each others works more often then one might think. More simply, there is not one universal way that economists look at empirically solving, predicating or explaining questions. Evidently, this generally creates huge competition in the field with inconclusive debates, and also supports the beliefs of critics. A recent article from The Economist provides a clear Continue reading Critique→

I’m going to completely nerd out for this post (not that I haven’t been doing that in the past). I’m going to be telling you about my favorite video game, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and more specifically, about some of the Game Theory involved in competitive play. But first, there are a few aspects of the game that I need to talk about first. In Melee, unlike most other fighting games, the characters don’t have life-meters. In order to take a life, a character has to be hit beyond the boundaries of the stage. Each hit that a character takes Continue reading Game Theory of Super Smash Bros. Melee→