Sound Economics

As-needed scheduling and hours for workers is becoming more popular with many businesses. Employers may give workers tentative shifts, but then contact them right before telling them they are no longer needed for said shift – if needs are already met. This “just-in-time” scheduling is being picked up by restaurants and retailers to keep from paying for more employees than needed and minimize their other costs. It makes sense initially: through this system employers won’t have to pay unneeded employees to sit around. However, Robert Reich of Guernica argues that this flexible kind of scheduling is not allowing workers to live their lives. The Continue reading “Flexible Hours” are Benefiting Employers and Hurting Employees→

This past week I heard some talk on the radio about the issue we are having with rhino poaching. These animals have a significant value on the black market, at least for some of their parts (such as their tusks). It is interesting to think of this issue in an economic sense, as it is illegal to hunt these animals. Even with the illegality of this market, the demand, and price of rhino tusks have been increasing as the number of rhinos decrease. It seems that people value the idea of owning such a scarce item. The growing market for these tusks Continue reading Poaching Markets→

Lately, there have been unsettling talk in the international economy about a “Grexit”: Greece leaving the Eurozone if it refuses to pay its debts and has to default. Greece’s debt stands at approximately 323 billion euros (366 billion dollars). Although this doesn’t seem like a huge number, especially compared to the United State’s debt of 16.34 trillion dollars, the importance of the number is in the debt-to-GDP ratio. This is simply an equation with a country’s total debt in the numerator and the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the denominator. It is generally concerning for developed countries to have Continue reading Drachma Drama→

Three weeks ago I outlined the history of the podcast. I noticed that previous attempts to launch podcast-like services as organized business ventures had failed. Podcasting only took on its modern form around 2005, when it launched as an open-source method of embedding audio files in RSS feeds. The first user-side podcast service was the personal project of an ex-MTV host. These observations raise the question: why did podcasting emerge outside of the corporate sphere? Two weeks ago, I addressed this question by considering podcasting as a “disruptive technology.” This week, I’ll look at the early days of podcasting in Continue reading Podcasting: An Emerging Industry? (Part 4)→

How can it be that the fastest growing and most profitable U.S. airline is the one most complained about? The most common reason that people don’t travel is the airfare price, which combined with Spirit airline’s odd success proves that cheap ticket prices are what fliers care most about. You have to plan months in advance just to feel like you are still overpaying for your ticket. Then when you get to the airport and run into a slew of other fees, ranging from checking baggage to being forced into purchasing overpriced airport food. For some people, the fees don’t Continue reading Most Hated and Successful US Airline→

Welfare benefits are a point of contention for lawmakers and consumers alike. Some states have been mulling over changing their welfare policies, most of which are aimed at controlling what the poor spend their food stamps and welfare checks on. Some politicians are worried that the poor take government money and spend it on non-essentials (concerns include welfare checks being spent at strip clubs and food stamps being used for filet mignon – I’m not kidding). To help put those fears to rest, the Bureau of Labor Statistics recently updated their consumer expenditure survey. The consumer expenditure survey shows how much individuals from Continue reading How do the poor and rich spend their money?→

Everyone has become infatuated with the use of data in business. This trend started with Billy Beane with the Oakland A’s, using simple statistics to govern strategic decision making about how to assemble a team. The idea of using statistics in more aspects of life has become popularized with movies like Moneyball and websites like Fivethirtyeight. The use of analytics or big data is now spreading across businesses and industries.  If you are a fan of basketball, you have seen NBA franchises begin to invest millions in departments dedicated solely to using math to give their team an advantage. These types of Continue reading Where is ‘Big Data’ Going?→

Anyone trying to go to a bar or coffee shop over the weekend may have been forced to wait longer in lines or found it harder to find places to sit because tables were full of people were sitting around tables playing board games. That’s because last Saturday was ‘International Tabletop Day,’ and tons of people came out to bars, coffee shops and other places to play games with friends or meet new people who enjoy board games. This idea was the brain-child of Wil Wheaton, who hosts the youtube show, ‘Tabletop’ where biweekly he brings his celebrity friends to Continue reading Why Recent Growth in the Board Game Market isn’t a Bubble→

As a student at a liberal arts university, I have developed into a huge proponent of multidisciplinary learning. It’s the way in which we can truly solve problems in the real world, as well as keep our minds open. Although I’ve only been a college student for two years, I’ve had the opportunity to take many classes that I wouldn’t have expected to take at a more degree-oriented university, with topics ranging from ancient philosophy to banking, and pretty much everything in between. One subject that I’ve somehow managed to avoid my entire life is physics. In high school, I Continue reading Physics and Economics→