Economy
Discover facts about economy. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Economy
Iran quietly grows most of the world's saffron
Despite relentless international sanctions, Iran quietly produces over ninety percent of the world's saffron. The complex web of middlemen required to get…
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Pigeons can beat humans at waiting for rewards
Avian brains are spectacularly equipped to handle behavioral reinforcement models. In laboratory setups measuring how long an organism will wait for varying…
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Why newborn photos arrive when parents are exhausted
Minutes after you have endured the most exhausting physical trauma of your life, a cheerful hospital contractor wheels in a camera to snap a picture of your…
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Why salt mines are perfect underground archives
Mining massive salt deposits creates enormous, completely dry, and structurally stable underground caverns. Rather than abandoning them, corporations and…
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Fort Knox holds less than half of America’s gold
Despite its legendary reputation as an impenetrable fortress of wealth, Fort Knox is basically just the government's overflow storage unit. Holding about 147…
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Why a good deal can still feel like a loss
Many people are utterly incapable of believing in a mutually beneficial transaction. If the person selling them an item seems slightly too happy about the…
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Halliburton patented patenting itself
This is what happens when corporate bureaucracy achieves inception. Halliburton legitimately secured a patent on the process of patent acquisition itself. By…
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Why some clothes seem made to fall apart
Durability is the greatest threat to a recurring wardrobe cycle. Modern thread counts and stitching techniques are aggressively downgraded to ensure rapid…
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Metal detecting hobbyists rarely uncover actual treasure
Wandering a local beach with a buzzing electronic stick requires buying expensive sensory equipment. Despite the heavy initial outlay, the most frequent yield…
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Why we cling to systems we know are broken
We are a species utterly terrified of the unknown, preferring familiar agony over potential joy. Status quo bias makes us violently resist change, treating…
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Why lottery pools rarely change your odds
Groups of highly optimistic coworkers will pool their resources together to buy hundreds of tickets, convinced the sheer volume guarantees success. In…
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Global banking runs on messages, not money
You would think transferring global trillions requires advanced sci-fi tech, but it is basically just secure email. The SWIFT network does not actually move…
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Why indie cinemas rent out their screens
Showing obscure indie films is an incredibly fast way to go bankrupt. Local theaters only keep their doors open by renting out screens for corporate…
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Why sequestering a jury costs so much
Locking twelve strangers in a hotel so they don't watch the news is an expensive legal drama. Between hotel buyouts, catered meals, and around-the-clock…
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Around a tenth of global wealth is offshore
For those of you dutifully paying your taxes, brace yourself for a slap in the face. Roughly a tenth of the entire world's GDP is casually chilling in shell…
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Why Spanish dollars were cut into eight bits
Pirate folklore loves to scream about massive silver coins, but making small change on a remote ship required brutal physical force. The massive Spanish…
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Why shopping around can make you overpay
If you drive to three different appliance stores to save forty bucks on a microwave, you have incurred massive search costs. By the third store, you are so…
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Why some people hire actors as relatives
In certain cultures with heavy social expectations, individuals will quietly hire actors to pose as highly supportive uncles, siblings, or spouses at major…
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Enron executives utilized extremely complex mark-to-market accounting tricks to hide billions in corporate debt
They literally counted 'projected future profits' as current cash on hand, allowing them to look like financial wizards while the company was secretly a…
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Why Black Friday discounts can be misleading
The annual tradition of trampling your neighbors for a cheap television is built on a foundation of mathematical lies. Retailers routinely raise the…
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Why supermarket tomatoes can survive a rough ride
Flavor was completely abandoned decades ago in favor of creating a crop that could survive being forcefully launched out of mechanical harvesters. You are…
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Public libraries deliver immense societal value
Because offering free books is the ultimate societal cheat code. Despite constant budget cuts, community libraries provide internet access, literacy programs,…
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Why the ruble is named after chopped silver
Before beautiful circular presses existed, Eastern European transactions involved a significant amount of terrifying metalwork. Because whole ingots of silver…
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Overcooked banquet meals represent pure deadweight loss
Serving a completely dried-out, terribly roasted bird at a massive gathering is a phenomenal way to torch sheer economic potential. The immense effort, raw…
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