Economy
Discover facts about economy. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Economy
China's 'flying cash' let merchants travel without hauling their coins.
China's 'flying cash' let merchants travel without hauling their coins. Under the Tang dynasty, remittance documents allowed money deposited in one place to…
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Sex workers and adult entertainers have noted that their industry frequently acts as an uncanny early warning system for economic recessions, a phenomenon informally dubbed the stripper index.
Sex workers and adult entertainers have noted that their industry frequently acts as an uncanny early warning system for economic recessions, a phenomenon…
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The enclosed mall was meant to be more than a shopping trip.
The enclosed mall was meant to be more than a shopping trip. Victor Gruen envisioned pedestrian gathering places with civic and social functions, and…
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Rome tried to fight inflation with a price list and the death penalty.
Rome tried to fight inflation with a price list and the death penalty. Diocletian's price edict of AD 301 set maximum charges for roughly 1,400 goods and…
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Swiss businesses created the WIR credit system in 1934, when ordinary money was scarce.
Swiss businesses created the WIR credit system in 1934, when ordinary money was scarce. A participating business could earn credits from one customer and…
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Nazi counterfeiters forced Britain to rethink its banknotes.
Nazi counterfeiters forced Britain to rethink its banknotes. Operation Bernhard used prisoners at Sachsenhausen to produce convincing forged British notes.…
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Economists checked whether skirt lengths could forecast the economy.
Economists checked whether skirt lengths could forecast the economy. Researchers compared fashion reports from L'Officiel with economic-cycle data. The…
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Japan's property boom let rising prices finance more buying.
Japan's property boom let rising prices finance more buying. As land values climbed during the late-1980s bubble, land used as collateral could support larger…
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Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company of Saudi Arabia, generated a staggering one hundred sixty-one billion dollars in net income in 2022, marking the highest annual profit ever recorded by a corporate entity.
Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company of Saudi Arabia, generated a staggering one hundred sixty-one billion dollars in net income in 2022, marking the…
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Sweden put a minus sign on a central-bank deposit rate.
Sweden put a minus sign on a central-bank deposit rate. In July 2009, the Riksbank lowered one deposit-facility rate to −0.25 percent. Banks using that…
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Venezuela's inflation made a coffee vastly pricier than a tank of fuel.
Venezuela's inflation made a coffee vastly pricier than a tank of fuel. In 2018, heavily subsidized pump prices lagged far behind the prices of everyday…
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Long before coins, people in the ancient Near East used clay tokens to keep track of goods.
Long before coins, people in the ancient Near East used clay tokens to keep track of goods. By the fourth millennium BC, some tokens were sealed inside hollow…
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Japan's public debt exceeds two years of its economic output.
Japan's public debt exceeds two years of its economic output. The IMF's 2026 assessment put gross public debt at about 214.5% of GDP for 2024. That compares…
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Giant stone discs known as Rai stones were used as legitimate currency on the Micronesian island of Yap, with some of the coins weighing up to four metric tons.
Giant stone discs known as Rai stones were used as legitimate currency on the Micronesian island of Yap, with some of the coins weighing up to four metric…
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Confederate dollars were a bet on winning the war.
Confederate dollars were a bet on winning the war. The notes depended on a government whose survival was still being fought over. Heavy issuance, shortages,…
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Mansa Musa's gifts reportedly made gold worth less in Cairo.
Mansa Musa's gifts reportedly made gold worth less in Cairo. The medieval writer al-Umari recorded accounts of the Malian ruler's lavish spending during his…
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Nutella's ancestor stretched scarce cocoa with local hazelnuts.
Nutella's ancestor stretched scarce cocoa with local hazelnuts. In 1946, Pietro Ferrero made a sweet hazelnut-and-cocoa paste shaped into a sliceable loaf. A…
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Pringles went to court over how much a potato snack had to resemble a potato chip.
Pringles went to court over how much a potato snack had to resemble a potato chip. The British VAT dispute turned on a product made partly from potato but…
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Costco gave up millions in margin to keep a chicken at $4.99.
Costco gave up millions in margin to keep a chicken at $4.99. In a 2015 earnings call, its finance chief described years when holding that price meant…
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A memorial diamond turns mourning into a material science problem.
A memorial diamond turns mourning into a material science problem. Companies market lab-grown diamonds made using carbon recovered from cremated remains or…
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A monastery could outlive every monk living inside it and still own the same land.
A monastery could outlive every monk living inside it and still own the same land. Property belonged to the continuing religious community rather than to a…
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Tupperware parties taught customers how to use the product.
Tupperware parties taught customers how to use the product. The airtight seal was not self-explanatory on a department-store shelf. Home demonstrations let…
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Public economics heavily studies the free-rider problem, a frustrating market failure that occurs when individuals actively consume a shared resource without paying their fair share for its maintenance.
Public economics heavily studies the free-rider problem, a frustrating market failure that occurs when individuals actively consume a shared resource without…
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President Richard Nixon permanently severed the United States dollar from the gold standard in 1971, officially ending the Bretton Woods system and transforming the global…
President Richard Nixon permanently severed the United States dollar from the gold standard in 1971, officially ending the Bretton Woods system and…
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