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Category Archives: Economics

Amazon Price Changes

Tuesday, August 1, 2006

Economist R. Preston McAfee was interviewed by the Guardian last month. In the interview, he discusses price volatility and how Amazon might be experiementing with price discrimination. After the interview, McAfee provided further observations about Amazon’s pricing.

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Education Debts

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

In response to Myshele Goldberg’s article The Real Tragedy of Student Debt, I cannot help but shake my head. The author complains of an education debt totalling a whopping $70,000. She points out, reasonably, that this is no way to start a working life. No shit, Myshele. I quote: Yet I made my choices based […]

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Jane Jacobs

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Jane Jacobs died today and I’m sorry to see her go. I probably can say anything about here book “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” that hasn’t already been said, but I will try. For me, the book is about two things; how the ‘experts’ can get everything wrong and how a astute […]

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Bad Joke

Wednesday, April 5, 2006

Did you hear about the Jihadist school of economics? Their prime concern is defending IS-LM.  

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Fact-Checking Government Statistics

Thursday, March 9, 2006

John Williams’ Shadow Government Statistics is a monthly newsletter which provides alternative analysis of government statisitcs. The newsletter itself costs a steep $175.00/year, so I won’t be subscribing. However, he provides some interesting notes on the structure and flaws in reporting of unemployment, federal deficit, consumer price index, and gross domestic product. Granted, if you […]

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Introductory Economics

Saturday, March 4, 2006

R. Preston McAfee, who teaches at Caltech has already had a pretty extensive and busy career, so I don’t know how exactly he found the time to author a textbook as well. His book, Introductory Economics is quite good and is an excellent reference even for those who already have a basic background in economics. In […]

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