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 [...]

For those of you who are avid Twitter users, the following paragraph will be old news: once you join Twitter, you notice how many Followers others have. People you have never heard of, and who seemingly have very little to offer, will have tens of thousands of followers. How come you have so few? [...]

After having posted about how the movie industry should look to the pornography industry in order to keep up with the times, we feel somewhat vindicated to see that the book industry seems to be doing just that. An article on Bloomberg Businessweek (“Trying to Avert a Digital Horror Story”) states how different publishers [...]

It’s that time of year again. This time you’ve decided to quit smoking, stop eating fast food, take a walk everyday, read a novel per week, etc. etc. Statistically speaking, only 8 percent of you will be able to keep these resolutions.
So where’s the problem? First of all, we’re not saying the [...]

The movie industry is finding itself at a crossroads. This is a multimillion dollar industry staring nervously at the music industry, the file sharing that swept it up, and the industry’s abysmal response to it all. Now Hollywood is wondering what will happen to them. Will they lose returns because of illegal sharing? [...]