Economy
Discover facts about economy. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Economy
Overseas bribes became a problem for America's accountants.
Overseas bribes became a problem for America's accountants. A 1977 GAO review described companies paying foreign officials for business advantages, alongside…
Discover more
Sears once mailed customers the pieces of a house.
Sears once mailed customers the pieces of a house. Between 1908 and 1940, its Modern Homes program sold house kits ordered from a catalog. Lumber and other…
Discover more
Hungary experienced the worst case of hyperinflation in recorded human history following the end of the second world war in 1946.
Hungary experienced the worst case of hyperinflation in recorded human history following the end of the second world war in 1946. At that pace, a price could…
Discover more
Tulip traders could buy a promise before the flower existed.
Tulip traders could buy a promise before the flower existed. During the Dutch tulip boom, contracts changed hands while bulbs were still in the ground. Buyers…
Discover more
The familiar FICO score arrived in 1989.
The familiar FICO score arrived in 1989. Credit scoring existed earlier, but FICO's cross-bureau score helped give lenders a standardized measure built from…
Discover more
Paying employees in company scrip was a horrifyingly exploitative practice during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries where corporations paid their workers in private, fake…
Paying employees in company scrip was a horrifyingly exploitative practice during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries where corporations paid their workers…
Discover more
STACKY FOR IPHONEA bigger world.
One discovery
at a time.
Keep discovering with Stacky. Interesting facts in an app that is always within reach.
Newton escaped a stock bubble—then bought back in.
Newton escaped a stock bubble—then bought back in. Research into his South Sea investments supports a painful sequence: early profits, renewed buying as the…
Discover more
IBM bought an operating system without making it exclusive.
IBM bought an operating system without making it exclusive. Microsoft supplied the software for IBM's PC while retaining the ability to license it to other…
Discover more
Piggly Wiggly’s founder tried to trap short sellers and ended up trapped by his own debt.
Piggly Wiggly’s founder tried to trap short sellers and ended up trapped by his own debt. Clarence Saunders bought heavily in 1923, hoping traders who had bet…
Discover more
Caesar reportedly told his kidnappers their ransom was too low.
Caesar reportedly told his kidnappers their ransom was too low. In Plutarch's account, pirates demanded 20 talents and Caesar offered 50, treating their price…
Discover more
The 'cobra effect' is a warning about paying for the wrong result.
The 'cobra effect' is a warning about paying for the wrong result. The familiar parable describes a snake bounty that encourages people to breed snakes…
Discover more
Credem Bank in Italy officially accepts massive wheels of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese as collateral for small business loans, storing hundreds of thousands of them in highly secured, climate-controlled vaults.
Credem Bank in Italy officially accepts massive wheels of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese as collateral for small business loans, storing hundreds of thousands of…
Discover more
Pepsi's Soviet business involved vodka as well as soda.
Pepsi's Soviet business involved vodka as well as soda. Because the ruble was not freely convertible, Pepsi's 1972 agreement exchanged access to its…
Discover more
Scavengers violently extracted tens of thousands of teeth from dead soldiers on the battlefield of Waterloo in 1815 to supply the booming British market for high-end luxury dentures.
Scavengers violently extracted tens of thousands of teeth from dead soldiers on the battlefield of Waterloo in 1815 to supply the booming British market for…
Discover more
The United States banned onion futures after traders manipulated the market in the 1950s.
The United States banned onion futures after traders manipulated the market in the 1950s. Vincent Kosuga and Sam Seigel accumulated onions and then profited…
Discover more
Programmer Laszlo Hanyecz bought two Papa John's pizzas in 2010 using exactly ten thousand Bitcoins. At the time, all 10,000 coins were worth about $41—a pizza order paid in digital money before it was widely valuable.
Programmer Laszlo Hanyecz bought two Papa John's pizzas in 2010 using exactly ten thousand Bitcoins. At the time, all 10,000 coins were worth about $41—a…
Discover more
The Hunt brothers' silver stockpile became a cash crisis.
The Hunt brothers' silver stockpile became a cash crisis. Their huge positions helped drive silver prices upward in 1979–80. Exchanges tightened trading and…
Discover more
Federal Reserve banks in the United States are not entirely federal entities, but rather operate as a strange hybrid of government oversight and private corporate structure that…
Federal Reserve banks in the United States are not entirely federal entities, but rather operate as a strange hybrid of government oversight and private…
Discover more
Expiration dates on modern credit cards were originally implemented simply to match the physical deterioration of the plastic material and the magnetic strip, ensuring the card…
Expiration dates on modern credit cards were originally implemented simply to match the physical deterioration of the plastic material and the magnetic strip,…
Discover more
An old limestone mine became a giant refrigerated warehouse.
An old limestone mine became a giant refrigerated warehouse. Missouri's Springfield Underground uses the surrounding rock's thermal mass to help keep storage…
Discover more
Australia sent soldiers with machine guns after emus.
Australia sent soldiers with machine guns after emus. The 1932 operation was a military-assisted cull requested by farmers whose crops were suffering. The…
Discover more
The world's debts do not need matching piles of cash.
The world's debts do not need matching piles of cash. A loan is an obligation for the borrower and an asset for the lender. Payments fall due at different…
Discover more
Pig-shaped savings banks existed in medieval Java.
Pig-shaped savings banks existed in medieval Java. A terracotta example from the Majapahit period survives in the Cleveland Museum of Art, dated to the…
Discover more
Cows and other livestock were one of the earliest and most widespread forms of currency used by ancient human civilizations, long before the invention of metal coins or paper bills.
Cows and other livestock were one of the earliest and most widespread forms of currency used by ancient human civilizations, long before the invention of…
Discover more