Economics In Real Life

On The Topic of Gift-Giving: An Infographic

A follow-on from yesterday’s post…. by NowSourcing.

The Irrationality of Gifts

Christmas is an awesome time of year. True, it’s not my favourite time (that particular award goes to Easter Sunday and the week that precedes it), but it is filled with carols and mince pies and baked ham. And Christmas morning is all about gifts. Something that you should know about economists: gifts drive them […]

Are Sales Really Sales?

Last week Friday was a black one. 7 people died. 90 were injured*. *check out blackfridaydeathcount.com Americans take holiday sales seriously. So here’s my question: what is a sale, exactly? The Convention This is the nebulous explanation (which feels a bit inherited – like the answer to a question that I asked as a toddler): […]

Let Whats-Her-Name Hunt Lions

I see that the Daily Maverick (and my friend Diana) beat me to the punch with this post. And you should definitely read this article: In Defence Of A Lion Killer. Personally – I was a bit bored by the “criticising Melissa is sexist” section. But it’s the second part that’s more interesting. As an […]

In A Manner Of Speaking…

One of the by-products of writing a blog is a close acquaintance with words. And, more relevantly, a slight fascination with them. Let me pause right here and say: Yes, this is still going to be a post about finance and economics. Yes, linguistics will be involved. And, actually, economics is a social science, so language […]

Mindless Compliance

Observation: venture capitalism as an economic system has made many of us more opportunistic than we perhaps would have been otherwise. And as a relatively obnoxious and morally-ambivalent individual, this has suited me just fine. And by that, I mean that I try not to take responsibility for someone else’s willingness to go with the […]

Boicotta Barilla? Meh

Drama! Some background story: Barilla pasta is pretty awesome. It’s the brand I buy – or, at least, it’s the brand that I used to buy when I openly ate carbohydrate*. *Today, I don’t buy carbohydrate in supermarkets. Instead, I seem to eat a lot of dessert in restaurants. Yes – it’s irrational. The Barilla […]

The Trouble With Car Guards

There is a standard South African anecdote that explains why we pay car guards: so that they don’t damage the car while we’re not there. Obviously, that’s ridiculous. Because we tip car guards on departure, not arrival – so how are they to know if they should key your C-class in advance? Which makes it […]