Skeptics Stack Exchange
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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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Is Social Security a Ponzi scheme?

Texas Gov. Rick Perry said at a September 7 MSNBC presidential debate that "it is a Ponzi scheme to tell our kids that are 25 or 30 years old today, you're paying into a program that's going to be there. Anybody that's for the status quo with Social…
user1873
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Are people unable to go to school because they can't afford uniforms?

In the middle of a blog post on human trafficking, it's claimed: Another way to be involved with this issue is to help prevent boys and girls from being trafficked in the first place. Many of the trafficked children come from and through the…
Andrew Grimm
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Has the US federal government ever defaulted on a loan?

A number of newspapers claim that the US federal government has never defaulted on its loans (though I noted that it did restructure them in 1930). In particular, the Economist states in the article “The Debt Ceiling and Default”, Jan 13th 2011,…
Brian M. Hunt
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Is the British monarchy economically beneficial?

When considering the economic impact of the British royals on the economy/budget, a first thought might be that they cost the state money since they don't do any "real" work and yet live quite luxurious lives. On the other hand, it is argued that…
Lagerbaer
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Is bribery damaging to society?

Many commentators in the developed countries insist that bribery is a form of corruption and needs to be stamped out in developing countries, contending that it is bad for the people. The main argument is that increases the gap between the rich and…
going
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Is the global inequality as measured by the Gini index rising or falling?

Olle Hammar et al write in Global Earnings Inequality, 1970–2015: Our main finding is that global earnings inequality has declined, primarily during the 2000s, when the global Gini coefficient dropped nearly 10 points …
Christian
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Was the UK's drive to acquire civilian metals to use in WW2 necessary for the war effort?

This question was asked here recently: Were World War II scrap drives in the United States truly necessary for the procurement of raw materials? And it has produced some very solid analysis and fascinating statistics. But the USA had a very…
matt_black
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Does the UK send the EU £350 million a week?

I got this propaganda leaflet through my door today, this has been widely claimed by parties in favor of the British EU referendum: We send the EU £350 million a week - let's fund our NHS instead Does UK send that much money to the EU every week?…
Sklivvz
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Is extreme poverty in the world getting worse?

In a recent Guardian article Jason Hickel argues that the west needs to de-develop in order to have any hope of meeting the UN goal of eradicating world poverty. He specifically says: Growth has been the main object of development for the past 70…
matt_black
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Are Americans less prosperous and less educated than their parents for the first time?

In the movie Inside Job, Matt Damon makes the following claim: For the first time in history, average Americans have less education and are less prosperous than their parents. Is that true? What measurements of prosperity support his point and…
Publius
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Do banks typically lose as much money as they make in the long term?

Nicholas Nassem Taleb makes the following passing statement in his latest meditation on the nature and management of risk (Antifragile): ...businesses with negative optionality (that is, the opposite of having optionality) such as banking have had…
matt_black
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Were more than a half of all Silicon Valley tech companies founded by immigrants between 1995 and 2005?

Source: CNN Global Public Square: A new book caught my eye this week. It’s called The Immigrant Exodus by Vivek Wadhwa, a former tech entrepreneur who now studies and lectures on immigration. He has some fascinating findings. Wadhwa says between…
Carlo Alterego
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Are teachers in the United states paid poorly?

At the last "Save Our Schools" rally, Matt Damon said: So you think job insecurity is what makes me work hard? I want to be an actor. That’s not an incentive. That’s the thing: See, you take this MBA-style thinking, right? It’s the problem with ed…
user1873
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Is 2FABE a secret code for sending postcards without a stamp?

Borrowing shamelessly from a travel Stack Exchange question https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/2825/2fabe-the-secret-international-travel-postcard-stamp-code: I was told about this about three years ago, that if you were desperate and…
Andrew Grimm
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Does the fossil fuel industry benefit from trillions of dollars of subsidy from governments every year?

This IMF working paper claims that the fossil fuel industry benefits from trillions of dollars of government subsidies every year. It is a working paper intended to "promote discussion" and not the official view of the IMF. The paper has been widely…
matt_black
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