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Questions tagged [economics]

Economics is the analytical study of the costs and benefits of producing, distributing, and consuming goods and services. This tag should not be used for personal finance questions, nor for most questions about expensive items, e.g. exorbitantly priced houses, autos, jewelry. It can be used for current events, and in historical contexts.

  • Macroeconomics concerns itself with behaviors, trends and efficiency at an economy-wide level.
  • Microeconomics focuses on firm-level and specific industry-scale behavior, e.g. individual transactions, forces of supply and demand, competitive markets participants versus those who wield pricing power.

Economic concepts are applicable to business enterprises in the private sector, as well as in government. Economic systems vary, from laissez-faire to central planning. The scope of economic thought is broad, influencing social welfare programs, foreign trade, monetary policy, and much more.

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How much daylight does daylight-saving save?

Possible Duplicate: What are the scientifically established effects of Daylight Saving Time? If we did not have daylight-saving, then would the days still be longer in the summer? If not, then what is it for? Does it have any advantages? For…
ctrl-alt-delor
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Did Americans coin the phrase "to make money"?

This claim comes from a work of fiction but it is often repeated as true by fiscally conservative individuals who respect the author. In Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, a character named Francisco gives a speech on the nature of money. Francisco says…
William Grobman
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Does "The Great Reset" seek to abolish property rights?

The Great Reset is a plan by the World Economic Forum, imagined by a gentleman named Klaus Schwab. The plan is somewhat controversial, with some media outlets portraying it as an agenda to abolish property rights as we know it. I saw this tweet,…
John
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Did Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell backtrack on raising interest rates from 2.5% to 3.25% in Jan 2 2019?

In this May 22 2020 article, NYU Stern Prof. Nouriel Roubini (BA Bocconi University 1982, PhD Harvard 1988) proclaimed: In other words, you’re saying that because of structural weaknesses in the economy, even modest inflation would be…
user16959
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Does Congress appropriate 300 billion annually to agencies which cannot legally receive appropriations?

According to the article Inappropriate Appropriations in The Weekly Standard: Congress spent $310 billion last year on some 250 agencies and programs that were no longer — as required under the law and Congress's own rules — authorized to receive…
user15947
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Do long working hours in Spain affect birth rate?

According to "Spain appoints 'minister for sex' to reverse nation's plummeting birth rate": Experts say long working hours and a culture of eating late at night and going to bed after midnight are partly to blame for the nation’s sex famine. Rafael…
user5341
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Can MSG be made from petroleum

Once again a famous article on how bad is Nutella was shared to me. Thankfully, from Skeptics we can disminish the main argument of the claim which rely on the fact that MSG is bad (but as shown here, we have no scientific evidence supporting…
Zonata
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Is there any proof that blackle.com conserves energy?

There are claims that blackle.com conserves energy given that it is darker themed and produces less light. There is a counter under the search box that constantly increases. But in today's era of computers, laptops, tablets etc does it really…
John Demetriou
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Is some better technology suppressed in favor of profits?

The Conspiracy in Question: I have heard from different sources (crazy people), that certain companies suppress better technology in favor of profits. For instance car tires and light-bulbs that last 100 times longer than current ones, for the same…
Ben Winding
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Is the US debt between 15 and 20 trillion dollars?

www.treasurydirect.gov puts the debt at around $17.3 trillion (this will change, so I'm not putting an exact amount). A related quote from Wikipedia On December 12, 2013, debt held by the public was approximately $12.312 trillion or about 73% of Q3…
ike
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x percent of people own y percent of the wealth

It is very common in infographics such as the following: to make a point about wealth inequality by showing a disproportionate amount of money owned by the richest people. I am slightly skeptical that this is a good measurement of a skewed wealth…
ithisa
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Could Eurostar have implemented a Wifi network on their train for £600 (GBP)?

I'm watching this video by Rory Suterland in which he claims at 6:15 that Eurostar could have implemented a WiFi network for £600, but instead choose to spend £6,000,000 decreasing the journey time by 40 minutes. Is this a substianted claim? This…
JMK
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Did China choose to finance the US after the 2008 crisis?

In today's edition of Le Monde there is an article about the increasing quantity of money in the world, and the problems or benefits that this might yield. In the introduction to the article the authors state that, in contrast to now, the world had…
KlausN
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Do some Jewish American charity organizations fund the Israeli military?

This was claimed by multiple sources, as an example Is it not striking that the US grants charity status to organizations whose sole mission is to support the army of another country? Are there any other examples of US tax-exempt organizations…
Sakib Arifin
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Is Wazzub a legitimate business opportunity?

Wazzub is a yet to be launched (at time of writing) web homepage, with advertising. In order to recruit new members, they are offering a MLM-style payout to early adopters who recruit other users. From their site: The company has been defending…
kiss my armpit
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