Although there has been a lot of focus on inflation in the post-crisis era, the U.S. has had minimal inflation and, quite possibly, deflation, exacerbated by political and economic policies put in place to fight inflation in a deflationary environment. If the European economy falls deeper into crisis, then real deflation – not the borderline… [Read More]
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Paying for College: For-Profit College Conundrums
The idea behind for-profit colleges is that they would deliver value to students through practical, career-focuses courses, scheduled at convenient times. They don’t have bells and whistles like student lounges, athletic facilities, or art museums. They also don’t support research faculty, nor do they offer the types of seminar classes that are so easy to… [Read More]
The Republic of the Congo: Not the Democratic Republic of the Congo
The first thing you need to know is that the Republic of the Congo is not its larger neighbor, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It seems obvious, but the similarities of the names makes it hard to do research. I thought I had found a book about the Republic of the Congo, but it… [Read More]
Those purchases we regret
I still use cash, in part because I think it makes me more mindful about spending money. Counting out the bills gives me time to think: do I really want to buy this? And yet, despite being a careful shopper and a cheapskate, I make mistakes. Thinking about these helps me to be better in… [Read More]
Gifts and the Singularity of Common Life Events
One of the ways that bloggers get ideas is to look for things that people search for. One day, in my site statistics, I found that someone had found this using the search terms “cheap married people poor gift giving -wedding”. The searcher ended up at this post on the economics of gifts. Those search… [Read More]
