Economy
Discover facts about economy. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Economy
Comic conventions charge massively for brief autographs
The autograph may take only three seconds, but fans pay for a glossy photo and a moment with someone they grew up watching. Nostalgia turns a quick signature…
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Matching blood takes more than A, B, and O
Red blood cells carry many markers beyond the familiar ABO and positive-or-negative labels. Patients needing repeated transfusions may require a much closer…
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Workplace bullies destroy company output
A bully manager may claim strong results while staff quit, call in sick or deliberately slow their work. Those lost hours can cost the company more than the…
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Why the same mattress has different names in every store
The mattress can be the same while the label changes from store to store. Manufacturers give models different names for different retailers, so shoppers have…
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Creative Commons licenses allow selective monetization
A noncommercial Creative Commons license lets people share the work, but not use it to make money without the creator’s permission. The same file can travel…
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Your beer may have been clarified with fish
Some brewers use isinglass from dried fish swim bladders to make cloudy beer clear. The collagen gathers yeast particles and pulls them to the bottom of the…
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A quick milk run can become a tour of the supermarket
When staples sit far from the entrance, a shopper passes shelves of items they did not come to buy. Refrigeration and restocking also shape placement, so…
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Why billion-dollar fines may barely hurt monopolies
A company can make billions through illegal behavior and still face a fine worth only a small fraction of that revenue. The headline number may sound enormous…
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Specialization ensures both the cobbler and tailor win
If a cobbler makes shoes and a tailor makes clothes, they can trade instead of each trying to master both crafts. Each gets better goods with less effort.
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How chipmakers create cheaper versions of the same chip
Instead of designing an entirely new chip, a maker can take a similar one and disable some features. The reduced version sells for less, while buyers who need…
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Hospitals charge hundreds for generic wooden crutches
A pair of wooden crutches can cost about $20 at a corner pharmacy, then appear on a hospital discharge bill as a $300 charge. Same basic object; a very…
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Amazon once patented white-background product photos
Amazon received a patent for a particular studio arrangement that photographed objects against a white background without later removing the background…
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Maintaining trademarks requires endless fees
A logo does not stay protected just because someone registered it. The owner has to keep using the trademark and pay the required fees, so protecting a name…
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Why even the worst team can be useful
Even the less efficient team can benefit from trading. If each side specializes in what it gives up least to produce, both can end up with more than if they…
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'Cash' once meant the box before it meant the money
The ordinary English word came through European terms for a money box, ultimately from Latin capsa. Over time, the container's name became the name of its…
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An Italian-looking olive oil may have foreign olives
An Italian brand, flag, or bottling address can tell a different story from the oil's origin statement. Oil bottled in Italy can contain oils from other…
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Everyone wants the printer fixed. Everyone waits for someone else
Everyone wants the office printer fixed, but fixing it costs someone time. Each person can wait and hope a coworker pays that cost, so the printer stays…
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Cleopatra's famous dinner bet put a pearl on the menu
Pliny tells a story in which Cleopatra proves she can consume an enormous fortune at one meal by dissolving a pearl in vinegar and drinking it. The tale…
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When governments subsidized fossil fuels over clean energy
The government made fossil fuels cheaper to extract with subsidies, while arguing that clean energy cost too much. The established fuels got help; the…
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Fox successfully trademarked Homer Simpson's annoyed grunt
A vague stage direction—“annoyed grunt”—turned into a sound people could recognize as “D’oh!” Fox registered the resulting noise as a trademark.
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Border walls fail basic cost benefit analysis
A ladder can get someone over a wall, while the wall still needs to be built and maintained. That mismatch is why critics say the barrier can cost a lot…
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Babylon wrote wage rates into law 3,700 years ago
Hammurabi's code specified payments for jobs such as field labor and herding, often in grain. It also prescribed severe punishments for wrongdoing. The same…
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When a five-cent coin is worth more as scrap
When copper and nickel prices rise, the metal in a five-cent coin can be worth more than the coin’s face value. That tempting scrap value comes with a catch:…
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Why game studios pay a cut to use free engines
A game studio can use a major engine for free until its game crosses an earnings threshold. Then the engine provider gets a percentage of the revenue—so the…
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