Economy
Discover facts about economy. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Economy
How hiding sales tax changes what people buy
We all like to think of ourselves as rational consumers, but a few price tags can easily short-circuit our math skills. Economist Raj Chetty ran an experiment…
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Why Facebook paid $19 billion for WhatsApp
In 2014, Facebook dropped an eye-watering $19 billion to buy WhatsApp, an app that generated basically zero revenue and had exactly 55 employees. Wall Street…
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Japan crushes senior savings via financial repression
You saved faithfully your entire life for retirement, only for the central bank to intentionally destroy your yield just to keep the government solvent. In…
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How rent caps helped push up San Francisco housing costs
Protecting tenants from greedy landlords with aggressive rent control actually triggers a spectacular economic backfire for everyone else. When San Francisco…
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How traders bet on wars without finding an opponent
Wagering millions on geopolitical chaos used to require finding a specific human willing to take the exact other side of your bet. Today, prediction platforms…
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How Greensill's collapse disrupted global supply chains
Supply chain finance sounds incredibly boring until a $10 billion firm completely implodes. Greensill Capital exploited the gap between when goods are…
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China keeps a national pork reserve
While most countries hold strategic reserves of petroleum, Beijing maintains a massive, top-secret national reserve of frozen pork. Because pork prices…
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Federal Reserve bleeds money for the Treasury
Central banks usually print massive profits and hand the spare change to their governments, but the US Federal Reserve recently broke the mold. Thanks to…
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How illegal Amazon gold entered the global market
Cartels have realized that smuggling precious metals is far more lucrative and legally ambiguous than moving cocaine. Firms in Miami acted as willing buyers…
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How drivers make Uber surge prices spike
Gig workers have figured out how to outsmart the all-knowing algorithms dictating their paychecks. By simultaneously turning off their driver apps in specific…
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How Japanese companies lend to one another without banks
Long before venture capital existed, small suppliers acted as informal banks for one another to keep assembly lines moving. Instead of begging banks for…
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How the Bahamas' Sand Dollar could bypass banks
Commercial banks are facing an existential crisis brought on by the very institutions that mint the money. With Central Bank Digital Currencies like the…
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The everyday tax rebellion hiding in a receipt
In economies where cash is king, paying taxes is often viewed less as a civic duty and more as a penalty for the naive. In countries battling low 'tax…
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How shadow banks helped bring down Lehman Brothers
Traditional banks are heavily regulated when they use your short-term deposits to fund long-term loans. Shadow banks, like money market funds, did the exact…
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One hedge fund bought a year's worth of cocoa for the UK
One single hedge fund successfully cornered the world's chocolate supply. In 2010, Anthony Ward of Armajaro Holdings purchased enough raw cocoa beans to…
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How one stockpile of copper was pledged to several banks
International trade finance relies heavily on warehouse receipts acting as rock-solid collateral. In 2014, traders in the Chinese port city of Qingdao…
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How ISIS turned stolen antiquities into cash
The underground economy of stolen history is brutally efficient. Terrorist organizations quickly recognized that looted Mesopotamian artifacts were highly…
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Жители фавелы создали собственный банк и валюту
When traditional banks categorically refused to lend money to the residents of the Conjunto Palmeiras favela in Brazil, the locals decided to just hallucinate…
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The journalist who saw the 1929 crash coming
While everyone in the Roaring Twenties thought the stock market was a magical, infinite-money machine, financial journalist Alexander Noyes was busy loudly…
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The coins that hid 30 years of treason
When the Massachusetts Bay Colony got tired of Britain ignoring their coin shortage in 1652, the local Puritans started illegally minting their own 'Pine Tree…
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When Japanese peasants were taxed in imaginary silver
Paying taxes is painful enough, but sixteenth-century Japanese warlords decided to tax their peasants using silver coins that literally did not exist. Because…
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How Britain outlawed companies to protect a monopoly
Imagine outlawing all startups because one massive, state-sponsored Ponzi scheme was feeling insecure. In 1720, the British Parliament passed the Bubble Act,…
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How Ottoman tax breaks weakened local businesses
In an attempt to encourage international trade, the Ottoman Empire granted sweeping privileges called 'Capitulations' to European merchants. It started as a…
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The currency designed to expire
Saving money is usually seen as a virtue, but Silvio Gesell thought hoarders were economic parasites. In the early 20th century, he proposed "Freigeld," a…
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