Big Apple Stirs Up Bezos’ Hive
A few months ago we saw Amazon and Walmart and Target engaged in some aggressive price competition in the sale of on-line books. I haven’t heard to much on that front of late, so I assume that the dust...
View ArticleMore on the Amazon-Macmillian Fracas
Excerpts from a very illuminating discussion: Greed, no doubt, exists on both sides, living as we do under capitalism, but greed alone doesn’t explain the dispute. Yes, Amazon wants to sell e-books for...
View ArticleDid Amazon Blink?
Looks like Amazon might have blinked. Dear Customers: Macmillan, one of the “big six” publishers, has clearly communicated to us that, regardless of our viewpoint, they are committed to switching to an...
View ArticleMonkey business
In Introductory Microeconomics, we have been discussing trade. We all know that Adam Smith wrote that trade was a result of people’s “propensity to truck, barter, and exchange one thing for another.”...
View ArticleThe Price is Right? UPDATED, TWICE!
The Summer marches on, and that means it’s time for some more summer reading. My recommendation this week is from George Mason economist and Marginal Revolution blogger extraordinaire, Tyler Cowen....
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Motivating Econ 101
Alex Tabarrok talks to NPR about the story he uses to motivate his 101 class at George Mason. It is a tale of the English shipping their prisoners off to Australia, with the sorry result that many of...
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Econ 100 Preview, Complements
Click for Clucky! Suppose the NFL players and owners fail to agree to terms on a new contract, thus reducing (or eliminating) the number of professional football games this coming season. What are the...
View ArticleThe Demand for Haikus
For those of you trying to master the difference between movement along and shifts — introducing Art Carden! Here it goes: The Law of Demand all else constant quantity demanded falls when the price...
View ArticleCauses of Demand Curve Shifts — Expected Price Changes
The first thing to remember about the law of demand is “all else constant.” What we are holding constant includes expected future prices. This from the Financial Times: Chinese consumers,...
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Can’t Beet these Profit Margins
Zoinks! This past week in 100 we tackled the unusual welfare economics and the effects of price controls. For introductory economics courses, rent control and minimum wage policies generally serve as...
View ArticleEconomics of Innovation in the New “Pamphlet” Era
This week seems to be innovation week for me, as I am reading two short books on the heels of The Great Stagnation. Reading these pieces, I can’t help but get the feeling that the economics profession...
View ArticleAn easy subject at which very few excel!
The study of economics does not seem to require any specialised gifts of an unusually high order. Is it not, intellectually regarded, a very easy subject compared with the higher branches of philosophy...
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