Everyday Economics - Suggest a New Topic
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1774 results found
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How can we best take advantage of charitable dollars and development money from rich countries?
I love the work of GiveWell in attempting to rigorously evaluate charities to help donors pick the most evidence-supported charitable organizations. However, this assumes that donors will give a set amount of money and are just looking for a recipient. In practice, I think donors are more likely to give to some groups that tug at the heart strings, that are related to current news, etc. Some charities won't be supported by rich governments for ideological reasons. So besides using metrics like lives saved per dollar, how can we maximize donations from rich countries and ensure that they do the…
1 vote -
Coping With Tech Driven Housing Booms / Rent Control
Different kinds of rent controls - hard caps, regulated increases, tenancy decontrol, different approaches to charging "fair rents" and problems with linking to CPI.
What should/could be done to cope in a housing boom? E.g. San Francisco, New York and so forth.
1 vote -
Is there a general rule as to when a government SHOULD intervene in an economy?
Is there a general rule as to when a government SHOULD intervene in an economy?
1 vote -
Did colonization help colonizing nations?
It's clear that some groups benefited (many producers got cheaper inputs/resources than otherwise), but did nations as a whole benefit (at the expense of the colony)?
1 vote -
Why Are Negative Interest Rates A Bad Thing?
While nobody wants skyrocketing inflation, Economists seem to agree that mild inflation is acceptable. However, there also seems to be a near universal belief that even mild deflation is a horrible phenomenon. I can't grasp why this is the case, other than the psychological effects of "self-fulfilling prophecy". If dollars are worth slightly more today then they are a month from now, won't that trigger demand/consumption? Won't that increased demand reduce unemployment and increase businesses spending/short-term investment? Please help me understand where I have gone wrong.
3 votes -
What happens to investments when a currency collapses?
Say the US dollar collapses. There is massive runaway inflation. My mortgage is still $xxx,xxxx. What does my employer pay me? How? Can I pay off my house now worth a couple ounces of gold converted to inflated US dollars? Did the bank just lose huge on their bet with me and millions of other homes for which they loaned money? What other factors should I consider?
3 votes -
How do we reconcile Ice-Age psychology (e.g. envy and spite to control IPD) with rational economics?
In small groups, where cooperation was the iterated prisoners' dilemma, it was quite rational to act irrationally, declining unequal sharing for example. See the allocate / veto game, where disgust at "unfairness" makes one side turn down free money.
Those instincts run deep. They drive the politics of envy and tribal resentment.
But to prosper we must embrace rational economics, and learn to live with unequally-rich, as superior to equally poor.2 votes -
Does saving money hurt others?
Are those who hoard money depriving others, making others lives less prosperous?
5 votes -
Did slavery help finance the Industrial Revolution in England?
Eric Williams's book Capitalism and Slavery puts forward the notion that the profits from slavery helped finance the Industrial Revolution. What do modern historians and economists think of this proposition?
1 vote -
What is money? Do I care?
I've always thought money is a squirrely thing. It transfers value but doesn't have any inherent value itself. How should we think about money, trade, and prosperity?
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4 votes
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Rent Seeking
I am an instructor at a community college. I will be talking about rent seeking tomorrow. I would love to have a video to share like the ones you are doing on other topics.
2 votes -
Agribusiness
Help us in Agribusiness.
0 votes -
How about replacing Obamacare with government paid medical savings accounts for each citizen?
If monthly deposits were made to each citizens medical savings accounts, in lieu of bureaucratic schemes that subsidize some but not all; would not competition drive down the cost of medical care, would not the stigma of medicaid be dissolved, would not excessive testing be reduced and would this not help with the immigration "problem". With such programs in place, citizens might be more open to immigrants that do not receive these government benefits until serving a probation period, obeying our laws and passing citizenship tests?
1 vote -
Why no resource in history has never been consumed to exhaustion
If a man spent his entire pay check on beer, there would still be beer for sale.
If he sold everything he had and spent it on beer, there would still be beer for sale.
If Bill Gates sold everything he had and spent it on beer, there would still be beer for sale.
If all of the richest people sold everything and spent it on beer, there would still be beer for sale.
No matter how much is spent on beer, there would STILL be beer for sale.
Why?2 votes -
1 vote
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How do you get to a smaller goverment now that you have a big government ? Topic for Professor Boudveaux
Do you not now need a strong government to get to a small government. It seems like a catch 22 to me. Do we have to wait for a black swan?
1 vote -
How can a country fend of economic collapse if our money is based off of trust, and a rising population means more money must be printed?
In the United States, the population is rising, this means that without the printing of more money, there will be the same amount of money for a greater amount of people, meaning it will make each dollar more valuable. Yet we print money that really on has a value because we give it one (it is simply paper after all). Printing off more money also leads the the devaluation of it as well (the wheelbarrow story in Germany). How is it that we stay this from happening?
3 votes -
SHARK TANK U - an outline of the steps to take FROM IDEA TO WE' RE KING OF THE HILL , SO PAY ATTENTION !
SHARK TANK U - an outline of the steps it takes to go from IDEA TO
WE'RE KING OF THE HILL , HERE'S HOW WE DID IT , SO PAY
ATTENTION !1 vote
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