Economics
53 articles-
How Much Is a Living Elephant Worth?
One question for Ralph Chami, assistant director at the International Monetary Fund.
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When Will Fusion Energy Light Our Homes?
One question for Thomas Nicholas, a computational plasma physicist and former fusion researcher who now studies climate science at Columbia University.
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How Can We Spot Fake Product Reviews?
One question for Brett Hollenbeck, an economist at the University of California, Los Angeles.
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To Protect the Ocean, Refinance Your Debt
How “blue bonds” turn national debt into funds for marine conservation.
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How Much Is the Ocean Worth?
Putting a price tag on the ocean might just save it.
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The Power of Narrative
Global solutions, like the greening of the world’s financial system, begin with the right story.
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We’re Killing Ourselves with Work
Evolution favors less work and more leisure.
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The Economic Case for Vaccine Passports
Requiring vaccine passports would not violate any individual rights that a well-ordered society would choose to defend.
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The Math That Says Egalitarianism Is Possible
You don’t have to be entirely pessimistic about the future of wealth inequality.
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I Have Come to Bury Ayn Rand
A prominent evolutionary biologist slays the beast of Individualism.
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Larry David and the Game Theory of Anonymous Donations
In a Curb Your Enthusiasm episode from 2007, Larry David and his wife Cheryl and their friends attend a ceremony to celebrate his public donation to the National Resources Defense Council, a non-profit environmental advocacy group. Little does he know that the actor Ted Danson, his arch-frenemy, also donated money, but anonymously. “Now it looks […]
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The Economic Damage Is Barely Conceivable
In America, people who lose jobs don’t necessarily get them back.
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The Robot Economy Will Run on Blockchain
What finance will look like when it is controlled by machines.
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Bo Burnham and the Illusion of Meritocracy
In a WTF with Marc Maron podcast episode from 2012, musical comedian Bo Burnham said his fortune felt unreal, as if his life were a futuristic VR game. “I could die, take off a helmet, and, look: It’s the Bo Burnham 2000. There’s a whole line of people crying waiting in line,” he told Maron. […]
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The Bitcoin Paradox
Why cryptocurrency will always be political.
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Is There an Ideal Amount of Income Inequality?
A conversation with this month’s Ingenious, Venkat Venkatasubramanian.
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Are You Downplaying Luck’s Role in Your Life?
When we succeed, we often take that success, in retrospect, to be the result of suffering that liquid trinity of blood, sweat, and tears. Perhaps fortune favored you here and there but, by and large, it was your effort and talent—not contingency—that won the day. Nonsense, says Robert Frank, a professor of economics at Cornell […]
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The Moon Is Full of Money
Capitalism in space.
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To Become a Better Investor, Think Like Darwin
“It’s not surprising that the fight-or-flight response is not going to be the most helpful way to deal with a financial crash in the same way that it’s going to be helpful when you’re being attacked in a back alley. It’s because financial markets and financial threats are a relatively new phenomenon.”Photograph by Kenishirotie / […]
