Happy almost New Year everyone! As we head into 2012, here’s a look back at the most popular (by pageviews) posts from 2011. Federal budget issues dominate the list, but pizza, cupcakes, and North Korea also made the cut. Why do half of Americans pay no federal income tax? (Spoiler: low incomes) The day the United [...]
Archive for December, 2011
Top Posts of 2011
Posted in Blog Admin, Budget on December 30, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The Best Photograph of the Year
Posted in Nature, tagged Nature, Photography on December 26, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Last week I made my nomination for the most important economic chart of the year. Now here’s my nomination for best photo: Yes, that’s a photograph. National Geographic’s Frans Lanting captured these camel thorn trees silhouetted against dunes welcoming the rising sun in Namib-Naukluft Park. I love the photo for its sheer beauty and the [...]
Santa, Could You Please Give Me the Impossible?
Posted in Budget, tagged Humor on December 22, 2011 | 1 Comment »
My lovely wife sends me a Christmas card: P.S. More cards here from smileecards.
The Twelve Days of Christmas for Our Weak Economy
Posted in Economy, tagged Humor on December 22, 2011 | 1 Comment »
With apologies to Christmas carol purists, my latest Christian Science Monitor column offers up the twelve days of Christmas for our weak economy. I am no Jeff Foxworthy, so please forgive the poetic license and imprecise scanning. Oh, and kudos to my editor for letting me keep in the reference to Festivus. As the folks [...]
The Most Important Economic Chart of the Year
Posted in Budget, Economy, Finance, International, tagged Europe, Graphics, Interest Rates on December 21, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Ezra Klein surveyed 18 economists for their charts of the year. Here’s my candidate, courtesy of Spiegel Online: This chart illustrates the end of euro complacency. Investors once acted as though the euro eliminated not just currency risk but sovereign credit risk. All nations–from Greece to Germany–could borrow at the same low rates. No longer. [...]
North Korea’s Economic Failure in a Second Picture
Posted in International, tagged GDP, North Korea, South Korea on December 19, 2011 | 1 Comment »
North Korea isn’t just dark. If you look at the nation’s per capita income, it’s clear that the economic situation has gotten darker. Over at the Washington Post Wonkblog, Brad Plumer crunches the data on per capita income in South and North Korea since the 1970s. Stunning divergence: Note that Kim Jong Il took power [...]
North Korea’s Economic Failure in One Picture
Posted in International, tagged Electricity, Growth, North Korea, South Korea on December 19, 2011 | 3 Comments »
North Korea is notoriously secretive. But it can’t hide from satellites. Here are nighttime images showing the amount of light coming from the Korean peninsula. As Donald Rumsfeld once said, “North Korea is dark”: This image comes from “Measuring Economic Growth from Outer Space” by J. Vernon Henderson, Adam Storeygard, and David N. Weil, who [...]
Will New Technology Help People Escape the “Sports Tax”?
Posted in Microeconomics, Technology, tagged Microeconomics, Pricing, Sports, Television on December 16, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Today’s exercise in everyday economics: Brian Stelter and Amy Chozick making the case that cable and satellite TV subscribers are paying a “sports tax” (ht: Jennifer R.). Writing in the New York Times, they say: Although “sports” never shows up as a line item on a cable or satellite bill, American television subscribers pay, on average, about [...]
Why Are Restaurant Dinners Pricier Than Lunch?
Posted in Microeconomics, tagged Microeconomics, Pricing on December 15, 2011 | 5 Comments »
Over at Quora, restaurateur Jonas M. Luster explains why he charges more for items at dinner than at lunch: Lunch isn’t prepared and served by my A-team. Many times waiters and cooks have to prove themselves during lunch before being allowed on the dinner line. This means I pay less in payroll. Lunch doesn’t usually serve [...]
A Great Introduction to Economic Inequality
Posted in Economy, Taxes, tagged Income, Inequality on December 14, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Over at the Browser, Sophie Roell interviews MIT economist Daron Acemoglu on the economics of inequality. In the course of discussing five books on the topic (one of which is actually a research paper), Acemoglu hits many of the high points — technology, skills, and education; the increase in income at the tippy-top of the [...]
Most Requested
Twitter
Get Updates by Email
Get Updates by RSS
Share or Bookmark
-
Recent Posts
- How Much Does the United States Really Owe?
- Can One Professor Teach 500,000 Students At Once?
- Capital Gains Taxes Are Going Up
- The Natural Gas Glut is Reshaping Electricity Markets
- Oil and Natural Gas Prices Move Even Further Apart
- Getting Better But a Long Way to Go
- How Do Consumers Spend Engine Efficiency Advances? On Bigger, Faster Cars
- Lose an Election, Gain a Think Tank
- You Can’t Manage What You Don’t Measure Correctly, NYC Crime Edition
- Top Posts of 2011
- The Best Photograph of the Year
- Santa, Could You Please Give Me the Impossible?
- The Twelve Days of Christmas for Our Weak Economy
- The Most Important Economic Chart of the Year
- North Korea’s Economic Failure in a Second Picture
30-Second Economics
Tags
Categories
Archives
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
Translate this blog into
