Economics for the Intelligent Amateur

In the wake of the recent controversy surrounding Free Markets, and more specifically, the “How could we be so stupid as to believe markets could work?” statements, we feel it is time to clear the air and make a couple blanket statements:
Efficient Markets does Not mean continuous growth
It is excusable in a way. We [...]

We have all heard of Joseph Stiglitz; the Nobel prize winning economist who releases books every now and then. You may also be familiar with his belief in more regulation for the economy and his criticism of President Obama’s rescue plan for the financial industry, famously remarking that whoever came up with it is [...]

No, not of the Groceries variety, but of the mask and cape variety. More specifically: beating evil dictators at their own game.
Those of you who read The Economist or follow our Tweets (conveniently accessible here: @Dumbagent) may have seen how Kim Jong-il was finally forced into an apology thanks to economics.
It seems [...]

An interesting article in the Beyond Bailouts website mentions a proposal to make it easier for banks that are deemed “too big to fail” to actually fail. The proposal would add a new chapter into the bankruptcy code, making it easier to allow these companies to go bankrupt. While we usually cringe at [...]

The Misery Index has been gaining traction as of late with its biggest increase since the early 1990’s. For those not in the know, the Misery Index isn’t a measure of how grumpy people are, but is simply the sum of the inflation and the unemployment rate.
This misery index has been rising for [...]