It’s become a bit of a biannual tradition for me to write an about the Olympics – specifically the distribution of medals between countries. IRead More
Winter Olympics Medals Over Time – Post Olympics Update
The Winter Olympics have now closed. The host nation Russia walked away with both the most medals and the most golds. The increase was prettyRead More
Winter Olympics Medals Over Time
My Summer Olympics post two years ago was fairly popular, so now that I have a brief respite from graduate school deadlines I put togetherRead More
Is Congress About to Accidentally End the Shutdown
The House just unanimously passed a bill allowing federal workers to get back pay. The Senate and President are in support so this should soonRead More
The Deficit: It’s the Economy, Stupid!
America’s approaching debt crisis is the topic de jour, both in the news room and in the living room. We have the fiscal cliff, theRead More
Econ 101 and the Cost of Cell Phone Plans
My one time colleague (Evan Lawrence-Hurt) posted the following: In Colombia I was able to purchase an iPhone SIM card for 7 pesos (~$5), gotRead More
The Free-Market Case for a Strong Social Safety Net
My time constraints mean this needs to be brief, but I think one of the strongest arguments for a strong social safety net comes directlyRead More
Broaden the Base and Lower the Rate
The Romney/Ryan tax plan calls for lower tax rates. They argue that the plan is going to be at least close to revenue neutral dueRead More
Gas is Still Too Cheap
Yesterday, for the first time, I spent more than $50 to fill my tank of gas. I do not have a particularly big car (it’sRead More
We Need More Revenue
I came across in interesting sentence in the CBO analysis of Paul Ryan’s budget proposal: “The path for revenues as a percentage of GDP was specifiedRead More