Posted on September 18, 2009 by Professor Coldheart
Hey, guys. I figured out how to save Iceland’s economy the other day. Just off the top of my head. In case anyone’s curious, or anything; I dunno.
Oh, hi, still here? Okay, good.
Iceland can turn its shattered economy around by transforming the island into a giant server farm.
…
…
… no, wait, come [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: economics, half-baked ideas, iceland, servers, silly | Leave a Comment »
Posted on August 14, 2009 by Professor Coldheart
Like most single Americans between the age of 21 and 36, I regularly go out and drink with large groups of people. Wait staff at bars accommodate large groups by ringing an entire table up as a single check. However, in an informal gathering, people come and go at different times. They [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: an evening with the professor, arrow's impossibility theorem, drinking, economics, game theory, voting | 1 Comment »
Posted on June 25, 2009 by Professor Coldheart
I’m in so many other media this week.
First, I have a post up on OTI comparing Burn Notice to John le Carre novels. If you like either, you ought to check out the other. Or, at least, my article.
Second, don’t forget this week’s podcast if you haven’t listened to it already: our 2009 [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: comics, economics, overt, overthinking it, superman | Leave a Comment »
Posted on June 4, 2009 by Professor Coldheart
I put a high premium on convenience.
I value my time very highly. While I don’t mind taking the bus – it gives me time to read, or watch videos on the iPod – I’d prefer to drive if it’ll save me some trouble. In Boston – or Cambridge, where I live – this [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: car, driving, economics, zipcar | Leave a Comment »
Posted on March 20, 2009 by Professor Coldheart
Today’s sign of the continuing disintegration of the American shopping mall as a center of commerce:Selling Snuggies in a mall sounds odd enough – the reversed bathrobe is one of those products that thrives on direct marketing and drop shipping, not herding massive quantities of inventory around. But no one’s selling these in a [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: economics, grim meathook future, shopping | Leave a Comment »
Posted on March 19, 2009 by Professor Coldheart
Concluding our three part series:
Heat, Part One. Hot water in Iceland stinks, literally. The entire island sits on bubbles of sulfuric water, requiring only a little drilling to summon to the surface. The amount of effort that the rest of the world puts into heating water for the home, a Reykjavik home [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: economics, hot tub, iceland, john maynard keynes, movies | Leave a Comment »
Posted on March 17, 2009 by Professor Coldheart
I didn’t know what to expect for my first international flight traveling alone, so I got to Logan early. I kicked my shoes off for the security line but, in the current production of TSA security theater, did not have to present my boarding pass. With several hours to kill, I had a [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: air travel, customs, economics, iceland | Leave a Comment »
Posted on January 29, 2009 by Professor Coldheart
If I released a music player that stored two hundred songs, took up about as much space as a fat paperback book and used a proprietary format other than .mp3 or .aiif or .wav, how well do you think it would sell? Even if I only charged $15? Do you think it would [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: bank, convenience, driving, economics, time preference | Leave a Comment »
Posted on December 1, 2008 by Professor Coldheart
Here’s a lesson in marginal costs.
If you buy business class seats rather than coach on AirTran, you will pay $100 to $200 more. However, if you upgrade at the moment you check in – whether online or at the airport – you’ll only pay $50 more. An empty seat in business class earns [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: air travel, airtran, drinking, economics, price discrimination | 1 Comment »
Posted on November 27, 2008 by Professor Coldheart
Economics, particularly the Austrians, give us the notion of time preference – the amount by which a human prefers to get a certain good now rather than in the future. You have to pay someone a premium if you want them to wait for their payday. This is because the future, and our [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: economics, time preference | Leave a Comment »