Economy
Discover facts about economy. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Economy
Why remote workers ended up working longer
The commute disappeared, but so did the office door that marked the end of the day. Some remote workers kept answering emails late into the night, stretching…
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An olive straight from the tree is a very different snack
Fresh olives contain intensely bitter oleuropein. Curing removes or breaks down that bitterness: lye treatment speeds up the process, followed by thorough…
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Bank identification numbers reveal who issued your card
Before you enter your PIN, the first six digits can tell the payment system which institution issued the card. That lets the transaction be routed to the…
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The Air Force found a $300 way to replace a $10,000 part
In 2018, Air Force officials said they had switched to 3-D printing a toilet-area cover that had cost $10,000 to replace. The original manufacturer no longer…
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Keeping useless junk drains massive mental energy
That broken toaster charges rent in attention: you keep stepping around it and deciding whether to throw it out. Clearing it away removes both the object and…
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Aramco earned more than $160 billion in a single year
The oil company reported $161.1 billion in net income for 2022, a record in its history as a listed business. That is profit, not the much larger total of…
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Why blowing into game cartridges made things worse
The moisture from your breath could stay on the cartridge’s metal pins and speed up corrosion. Reinserting the cartridge at a different angle may have seemed…
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The Philadelphia Mint kept a real eagle
The Mint's own nineteenth-century history describes Peter, an eagle that lived around the building and became a staff favorite. After his death, he was…
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Ten dollar markups vanish on expensive vehicles
Add $1,000 to a luxury-car invoice and it may barely register. Add a few dollars to a cheap pen and the markup can feel enormous, even though the smaller…
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Fish farms use cannons to feed their fish
Offshore farms use automated pneumatic cannons to scatter floating feed pellets across their pens. One burst can feed thousands of salmon at once.
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Why fitness influencers are really selling clothes
The workout video can be an ad in gym clothes. Influencers feature athletic wear and discount codes, sometimes giving the products more attention than the…
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Why cemeteries bury coffins in concrete vaults
The concrete vault under a grave supports the soil above it, so landscaping equipment is less likely to leave a sunken patch. It is not there to preserve the…
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When bacon became a Wall Street commodity
In 1961, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange turned pork bellies into futures contracts. Meatpackers used them to hedge against price swings, while the contracts…
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A perpetual-motion patent can prompt a request for a working model
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office normally judges an invention from its written description and drawings. For a claimed perpetual-motion machine, however,…
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Backseat gaming creates intense household tension
The backseat player may think they’re helping, but constant instructions can make the person holding the controller feel criticized. A game session can…
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Why evolution can demand endless improvement
A species can evolve just to stay where it is: if its competitors also adapt, standing still means falling behind. The arms race keeps moving even when nobody…
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Constantly searching for better deals costs you literal time
The discount is only three dollars; the round trip burns gas and time. By the time you reach the cheaper toaster, the bargain may already be gone.
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Your furniture's shine may come from insects
Shellac is made from resin secreted by lac insects on tree branches. Once collected and refined, it can be dissolved in alcohol and applied to wood as a…
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The hidden cost of buying a historic ruin
The bargain price on a historic ruin can come with a costly catch. Strict preservation rules may require authentic masonry, making the restoration feel less…
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Why a packed bus beats forty cars on cost
One driver, one set of fuel and insurance costs, and 40 passengers sharing the bill: a packed bus can cost far less per person than 40 cars. The savings come…
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Why old online games suddenly stop working
Keeping an old game's online servers running takes staff and money, even after most players have moved on. When a studio shuts that infrastructure down, a…
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Americans put postage stamps in tiny cases to use as money
During the Civil War, coin hoarding left shops short of small change. Postage stamps could substitute, but they were fragile. Inventors protected them behind…
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The space station's price includes building it off Earth
ESA has estimated €100 billion for developing and assembling the International Space Station plus ten years of operation. That is not simply a house price:…
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Google once routed royalties through a tax sandwich
The “Double Irish, Dutch sandwich” moved licensing payments through companies in Ireland and the Netherlands toward low-tax Bermuda. Intellectual property…
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