Weekly Roundup: From Lemons to Longevity

This week’s stories on everyday economics include baby boomer dependency ratios, disposable income, human capital, the price system, the money supply and the iPhone 6 supply chain.

Joseph Schumpeter: Economic Models and Eileen Ford

Eileen Ford died this week. An entrepreneur who transformed the business of beauty, Eileen Ford’s talent was pairing a face with a camera. During its earlier years, the women her modeling agency represented included Martha Stewart, Ali MacGraw, Suzy Parker, Candice Bergen, and…

California's Proposition 8 Was Also About Economics

Our (occasional) Monday gender issue focus: Yesterday, at the Nantucket Film Festival, I watched the HBO documentary, The Case Against 8. Documenting the court battle against California’s Proposition 8, the film introduced me to a memorable group of people that included 2 same-sex couples who wanted…

How Big is the Leisure Gap Between Men and Women?

Our Monday gender issue focus Married or single, weekends and weekdays, men have more leisure time than women. Imagine a typical weekend. Yes, mom might spend a bit less time watching the kids and dad does do more housework. However, when it…

Gender Issues: The Invention of Wings

Our Monday gender issues focus Combine 1 great read, 2 crucial issues and 3 memorable women (2 who really existed) and you get The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd. Through a lens that focuses on slavery and women’s rights, The…

Gender Issues: Another Way to Estimate the Cost of Children

Our Monday Gender Issues Focus When people ask how much children cost, they expect to hear a dollar total. For women, though, the cost can be much more. First, I did check the dollar total. According to the US Department of Agriculture, in 2012, covering…

Gender Issues: Literate Women

For millennia, men have tried to stop women from learning to read. Before we look back, I wanted to share these World Bank maps that let us see the status of female literacy, 2009-2013 Female Literacy in Developing Nations: Worldwide ratios of female…

Why Do We Need More King Peggys?

Our Monday Gender Issue: Having a woman as the king of an African fishing village can make a big difference. During 2008, a secretary who works at Ghana’s Washington DC embassy  got a middle of the night call at her…

The Best Reason For Women to be on Corporate Boards

Our Monday Gender Issue: Last year, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who had long opposed female quotas on corporate boards, capitulated. Ms. Merkel’s labor minister, a physician and mother of 6, held firm to demands that her boss accept quotas. Merkel…

Gender Issues: What If We No Longer Said “He” and “She”?

Our Monday Gender Issue: In the February 10th issue of the New Yorker, I read “Pronoun Envy” by Anne Carson. Here is the beginning: Pronoun Envy “is a phrase coined by Cal Watkins of the Harvard Linguistics Department in November…