Economics for the Intelligent Amateur

AP reports that a Wisconsin couple have each won the lottery – twice:
Verlyn and Judith Adamson claimed two $350,000 jackpots on Monday because each held a winning ticket in the state SuperCash drawing last Saturday. They didn’t mention at the time that they also held two more of the winning tickets.
Apparently Verlyn Adamson, an accountant [...]

Yet another article, this one from BBC, addressing prediction markets, and how they have become extremely popular for this year’s presidential election.
This article states that Joseph Biden is the front runner for the Democratic VP candidate, while Romney and Pawlenty are in top spots for the Republican VP (although McCain’s choice is expected to occur [...]

Everyday I commute roughly 54 miles round trip to get to and from work, which takes a little more than an hour for each leg of the trip. Occasionally, I have the fortune to share a ride with my neighbor and carpool to work, which then only takes about 30 minutes.
Regardless of how I [...]

The recent pulldown in commodity prices has not convinced me to reduce allocation in gold/energy. Investors bought into the “demand destruction” theory while the US Dollar went up in response to problems in the European Union.  In herd-like fashion, hedge funds and institutions exited in tandem, triggering stop loss orders and heralding the “end of the commodities boom”.
I [...]

Behavioral Economics has often been used as a weapon against the believers in efficient markets since it shows that people do not always act in an economically rational manner. While we here at Dumbagent.com are firm believers in the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH), we also simultaneously believe in this seemingly negating school of thought. How [...]