Tag Archives: Economics

Emma Maersk: World’s Largest Cargo Ship

Here’s an interesting documentary on the Emma Maersk, an ultra-large container ship. It’s worth 45 minutes of your time–as you watch, consider just how many people–and how many jurisdictions–are involved in what you see. In the video, Emma Maersk is carrying over 10,000 containers of cargo. Could the captain list a complete inventory of what’s on […]

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Expert Economic Judgment: We Need to Do Better

This morning, I appeared on the Birmingham Business Journal’s 2016 Economic Forecast panel. For a lot of reasons, I’m not confident enough to offer secure predictions beyond that which is reflected in my personal decisions and asset portfolio. I’ve bought in to Birmingham by moving to Southside, I still think stocks are a good investment over […]

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It’s Gruesome That An Artist So Handsome Should Care: “This Charming Charlie” Is Awesome

Behold, one of the greatest things on the internet: the “This Charming Charlie” Tumblr, where artist Lauren LoPrete has put lyrics from Smiths and Morrissey songs into the conversation bubbles in “Peanuts” strips. I’m a little late to the party here as this is a few years old, but one of the neatest things about […]

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House of Cards is “Politics Without Romance”

I’m late to this party: I just recently started watching “House of Cards” on Netflix. As an economist who studies and teaches the economics of political decision making, I find it absolutely captivating. It’s a spectacular example of the public choice tradition, which the Nobel laureate James Buchanan defined as “politics without romance.” After watching […]

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Living The Hobbesian Nightmare: The Walking Dead

Life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. This is nowhere more clearly in evidence than in the AMC hit The Walking Dead. How well will we do after the zombie apocalypse? Not well, I think—we’re a species that burns cars when a football team loses. If anything, watching The Walking Dead has made me wonder how […]

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