Sound Economics – Page 48 – Everyday economics from the University of Puget Sound

What Happens if We Burn the Trees?

Posted on October 31, 2016 by Megan Waldo — No Comments ↓

In August of 2015, President Obama and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a proposal called the Clean Power Plan. Its aim is to reduce carbon pollution from power plants by generating a fair, flexible and strong national standard for clean energy and lower pollution. Just recently, on October 23rd, the EPA released its final rule for Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which is set to go into effect on December 22nd. The rule details expectations for states to regulate their carbon dioxide emissions by examining performance rates of pre-existing fossil fuel-fired electric generating units (EGUs). While many are on board Continue reading What Happens if We Burn the Trees?→

Efficiency in Class Registration

Posted on October 31, 2016 by Geremia Lizier-Zmudzinski — No Comments ↓

We are just about a week away from registration for Spring Term 2017. More than just being an easy topic to bring up to assuage an awkward conversation with that person you aren’t great friends with but somehow find yourself running into often, registration is cool because it gives most students a sense of excitement. I like to think there are two main reasons for this: 1) Most people like to plan, especially when the planning is almost entirely up to them. Registration gives us powerful autonomy, with a few clicks of a mouse we can essentially more or less Continue reading Efficiency in Class Registration→

Dependency on Sponsorship: Professional Gaming

Posted on October 30, 2016 by Cole Driscoll — No Comments ↓

Video games have been around since the 1950s when the “cathode-ray tube amusement device” was first invented. But now video games have taken a new form of entertainment as “professional gaming” has become popular in the last few years. The video game industry has seen much growth, especially over the 21st century, and the industry has realized a total revenue of about $23.5 billion in 2015. Of course, with this type of money flowing into the industry there must be consumers who are dedicated to these products and there are. The reason that the industry has been expanding is because Continue reading Dependency on Sponsorship: Professional Gaming→

Where Has Andrew Monaco Been?

Posted on October 28, 2016 by Tesha Shalon — 2 Comments ↓

Listen to the podcast here or by clicking the title. If you’re interested in participating in one of Andrew’s experimental projects, shoot him an email at amonaco@pugetsound.edu !

Release Strategy of Nintendo Switch

Posted on October 27, 2016 by Alex Shaw — No Comments ↓

I’ve been a Nintendo fan most of my life. I don’t actually remember a time in my life before I had a GameBoy with Pokémon. My favorite video game to this day is Super Smash Bros Melee, a game which feature characters from Nintendo’s most popular franchises, released all the way back in 2001. However, Nintendo’s most recent console, the Wii U, hasn’t done very well compared to higher capacity rivals, the Sony PS4 and the Microsoft Xbox One. This Forbes article talks about Nintendo’s odd release strategy of the New Nintendo Switch, which is due to be out in Continue reading Release Strategy of Nintendo Switch→

Oregon’s Measure 97

Posted on October 24, 2016 by Geremia Lizier-Zmudzinski — No Comments ↓

We don’t only vote for Presidents. While we spend much of our time fretting over who the next President will be, we often neglect important local elections and legislative bills. This isn’t necessarily a problem but it is ironic that voters spend more time paying attention to headline grabbing presidential candidate debates and TV appearances than local bills that if passed, are likely to have more impact on their lives than the next President. In Washington this year, the potential bill getting most attention is Initiative 732 which would be the first statewide bill in the United States to place Continue reading Oregon’s Measure 97→

Did Shanghai Have a Housing “Bubble”?

Posted on October 24, 2016 by Megan Waldo — No Comments ↓

Like Seattle, Portland and San Francisco, Shanghai has been experiencing massive increases in housing prices over the past couple of years. Many salespersons are saying that it feels a lot like a bubble, but in a recent article by the Economist, it is noted that the sharp rise in prices does not match the local economic trends and that a bubble is a misdiagnosis of the problem. Instead, the real problem comes from a shortage in land supply. The city is a large contributor to China’s overall GDP and thus, most people living in the cities surrounding Shanghai will commute Continue reading Did Shanghai Have a Housing “Bubble”?→

Automobile Industry Feelin the Heat

Posted on October 23, 2016 by Cole Driscoll — No Comments ↓

On Monday Ford Motor company announced that they will be shutting down production of their F-150 pickup truck for a week. The demand for these American cars has been dropping and Ford has been feeling the heat from it. Ford’s F-150 truck has been the best-selling model in North America and Ford has seen steady growth in the last six years. But Ford was forced to shut down one of its Kentucky plants for the next week and temporarily idle production of several other plants in the US and Mexico. Reuters.com reports that 13,000 employees will be effected by these Continue reading Automobile Industry Feelin the Heat→

This Tuesday, 10/25: Debate on WA Initiative 732 regarding a carbon tax.

Posted on October 22, 2016 by Garrett Milam — No Comments ↓

Where: McIntyre 107 When: 4 – 5pm, Tuesday 10/25 The Economics Department is hosting a discussion of WA initiative 732 which seeks to create a revenue neutral carbon tax in Washington state to combat greenhouse gas emissions. Advocates from both the ‘pro’ and ‘con’ camps will be speaking. Yoram Bauman, economist for CarbonWA.org and one of the founders of I-732 will speak in favor of the measure. Brandon Houskeeper from the Association of Washington Business will make the case against the measure.