Submitted by CARPE DIEM
In the first of a three-part series on the “Economics of College,” economist Thomas Sowell asks, “How many people would go to college if they had to pay the real cost of all the resources taken from other parts of the economy? Probably a lot fewer people.”

Part 1 here, Part 2 here […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM

ECONOMIST–The cost of a phone call abroad has dropped dramatically in the past three decades, thanks to market liberalization and advances in technology. A one-minute fixed-line call from America has fallen by 98.4% in real terms since 1973 (see chart above).

In other words, an international phone call that cost $100 in 1973 […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM

BENTONVILLE, ARKANSAS/MSNBC - Wal-Mart is moving closer to a possible expansion into Russia with the appointment of an experienced European executive to scope out possibilities in a vast retail market worth more than $140 billion a year in food sales alone.
From a related Reuters article, Wal-Mart Chief Executive Lee Scott said at […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
I’ve been to Russia now four times, and one of the most interesting and unusual retail practices in stores there is the Russian sales clerks’ habit of tearing almost every sales receipt before they hand it to you or set it down on the counter (see picture above).

Supposedly, this practice […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
NPR: In this broadcast we talk to a bunch of American-born Indians and their local friends who discuss what it’s like to come “home” and what it’s like to be invaded by Americans who want to rediscover their “Indian-ness”. The locals have a nickname for these Americans —they call them “ABCDs.” That’s […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
“Freer Trade Could Fill the World’s Rice Bowl,” by Tyler Cowen in The NY Times

“America Needs to Make a New Case for Trade,” by Lawrence Summers in The Financial Times

Rating 3.00 out of 5

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Amid the hustle and bustle of downtown Los Angeles, there exists another world, an underground world of illicit trade in—not drugs or sex—but bacon-wrapped hot dogs. Street vendors may sell you an illegal bacon dog, but hardly anyone will talk about it, for fear of being hassled, shut down or worse. Reason.tv’s […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
The government takes over 40 cents a gallon in taxes for gasoline, far more than the profit per gallon made by oil refiners like Exxon. And the government doesn’t make any gas for you.
~Temple University Economics Professor Bill Dunkleberg

Rating 3.00 out of 5

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
What is remarkable and amazing is that as “car options considered to be essential to car shoppers” have increased significantly between 1985 and 2007 (see chart above), new car prices have: a) increased much less than the general price level during that period, b) been relatively flat since about 1993, and c) […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Two big, very noticeable differences between Russia and the USA:

1. Everybody here in Moscow smokes. Well, almost everybody.

2. Nobody here in Moscow is overweight. Well, almost nobody. Our MBA group sat in the Food Court in a popular mall near Red Square, drinking $2 beers, and watched Russians walk by for about […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM

While visiting the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia (in Moscow) yesterday, President Andrew Sommers told our group a wonderful story that really captures the old Soviet-era mentality towards customer service.
 

When McDonald’s opened its first restaurant in the Soviet Union in 1990 near Moscow’s Pushkin Square (pictured above, still the largest […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM

CNN–Moscow is supposed to be the most expensive city in the world to live in, and is 34.4% more expensive than New York City. But I don’t think that translates to Moscow being the most expensive city for a tourist to travel to. In fact, our group has found Moscow to be […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM

Chinese author Mian Mian said that “As a city, Shanghai is like a beautiful young bitch who loves money.”

After being in Moscow for 3 days, I think the same could be said about this incredibly dynamic and energetic city, with construction going on everywhere and the economy absolutely booming! A lot has […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
John McCain sure sounds like a tax rate-cutting fiscal conservative. His tax proposals, detailed in this speech last week, seem to extend the Reagan-Bush legacy of lower marginal rates across the board, and special emphasis on supply-side incentives (see various tax breaks below). But this article contrasts McCain the candidate with McCain […]

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Submitted by Unsettling Economics
I was talking to a Costco manager who told me that sales of most items are flat, but liquor sales are brisk.
The New York Times reports on a phenomenon that I have heard of locally — that bees are finding homes in abandoned houses. Perhaps we have found a solution to the […]

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Submitted by Unsettling Economics
What follows is not an economic question. I have no expertise in genetic engineering, though I am a skeptic, worried about possible consequences — and even more worried about corporations is having property rights in such matters. Here is the background to my question:
The biological literature is filled with stories of well-meaning […]

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Submitted by The Capital Spectator
The Federal Reserve’s two-day FOMC confab begins tomorrow and the tells AP: “We are entering the stage where it is time for the Fed to wind down and move to the sidelines. A quarter-point reduction is a nice segue to that transition. Short-term interest rates could stay low longer than many […]

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Submitted by Econbrowser
There was a time one could plausibly argue that importing lots of goods and services, and borrowing a lot from abroad (financing the budget deficits that we’ve incurred since 2001) was a great idea. But at the time, about two and a half years ago, I made the following warning in a Council […]

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Submitted by Econbrowser
The speaker at our UCSD Economics Roundtable this week was Peter Hooper, chief economist for Deutsche Bank Securities. Here is a brief summary of his thoughts about the U.S. economic outlook.
Hooper thinks the U.S. has likely already entered a recession and is expecting U.S. real GDP growth to come in slightly negative for […]

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Submitted by Businomics Blog
Our taxi driver from the Amsterdam airport longed  to return to Turkey.  He had lived in the Netherlands 36 years, since age 2, but would  go back to Turkey in two years, when his son graduated from high school. He had nothing good to say about Holland:  too expensive, to many kids […]

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