9+ hour, 56+ min ago  (1281+ words) A viral mental habit about burnt toast echoes Stoic philosophy: adversity " no matter how small " is an opportunity to practice discipline, perspective, and self-mastery. It was a brutal winter in New England. Many mornings, I got out of bed to…...

2+ day, 10+ hour ago  (612+ words) By hiking its hotel tax to 19 percent, Chicago is funding marketing meant to draw visitors " but higher costs are likely to deter the very tourists it hopes to attract. There is an old economics adage that says if you want…...

1+ week, 1+ day ago  (327+ words) The arguably zero value added by the TSA's security theater thus becomes a self-enforcing bloating of the bureaucracy, making the agency an ever-expanding jobs program that burdens taxpayers while harassing travelers. We would thus see continuously improved security measures provided…...

2+ week, 1+ day ago  (533+ words) Though Saturday morning television is gone, the regulatory complex it spawned remains. The story begins in 1961, with a hectoring speech by attorney Newton N. Minow to a group of television executives. He had been appointed chairman of the Federal Communications Commission…...

2+ week, 1+ day ago  (533+ words) Though Saturday morning television is gone, the regulatory complex it spawned remains. The story begins in 1961, with a hectoring speech by attorney Newton N. Minow to a group of television executives. He had been appointed chairman of the Federal Communications Commission…...

3+ week, 3+ day ago  (652+ words) Smith's work shaped modern political economy, and his insights into human cooperation remain as relevant today as they were in 1776. I'll be taking a deep dive into the Wealth of Nations (WN) this year with twelve monthly essays overviewing the…...

4+ week, 9+ hour ago  (285+ words) Concentrated markets and micromanaging regulators can turn a policy change into systemic failure. Rules matter, but the cost is resilience. In Europe, liberalization in the 1990s enabled the rise of low-cost carriers that expanded capacity and required others to evolve service…...

1+ mon, 2+ week ago  (418+ words) From West African cocoa policy to weather shocks and trade barriers, the price of Kisses and truffles is shaped by a whole world before it hits your supermarket shelf. "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what…...

1+ mon, 2+ week ago  (999+ words) Economic reasoning explains why sports gambling reliably makes the average bettor poorer. Point-shaving scandals and information asymmetries reveal why the odds are stacked against participants. Sports betting has become an epidemic, especially among young men. The Guardian recently aggregated some…...

1+ mon, 2+ week ago  (639+ words) Archaeology is now revealing the grit and hustle of the Roman middle class, reminding us that civilizations depend not on elites, but on the conditions that allow ordinary people to thrive. "It's a delicious irony," she writes, "that more information…...