Sound Economics

The Chinese city of Liangyungang seems to have a bright economic future ahead of it. As a vibrant city on the eastern coast of China with easy access to Taiwan and Korea Liangyungang is a rising center of industry, foreign trade, and tourism. The Chinese government recently released a statement to the residents of Liangyungang that they are planning on constructing a new nuclear power plant within city. Needless to say, after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan the residents of Liangyungang are worried about their own futures. The need for this nuclear power plant is clear, as most of Continue reading Nuclear Futures Seem Dim→

The World Bank has stated that it estimates that Zika will cost the world $3.5 billion dollars in 2016. Although as of June 2016 there have only been 341 confirmed cases of Zika among pregnant women in the US, there are more than a million people who are infected in Brazil. What factors go into calculating the cost of an enormous, widespread virus that also has many externalities on the economy, and how is this calculation done? The methods of putting a price tag on an epidemic involve extrapolation, history, statistics, science, and many other methods. The first piece of the Continue reading How Much it Will Cost to Stop the Zika Virus→

Last week there was a massive recall on the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones after reports were filed of the phone overheating and “exploding.” Two and a half million phones were recalled, and one million of those phones were recalled from the United States. The call was made by the Samsung voluntarily, urging consumers to power down their devices and return them as soon as possible. This recall has had a large impact on consumers beyond just halting their social media presence. Airlines like United Arab Emirates and Virgin Australia have banned the use of the Samsung phone while flying. Continue reading Did Samsung just Lose its Consumers to Apple?→