With the honoring of Veteran’s Day this month, I am reminded of the power that a well-told story can wield. War, since the beginning of mankind, has been recorded in stories. Those tales range from barbaric to heroic, from tragic to patriotic, reminding us that conflict brings out both the…

I recently covered 22 economics terms everyone should know, but that was only the tip of the iceberg. There are thousands—literally thousands—of terms within the field of economics. So, without further ado, here are 21 additional terms that every economics student should know. Macroeconomics Analyzing economic-wide phenomena like growth, inflation, and…

How a personal tragedy changed Theodore Roosevelt’s life — It was the eve of Valentine’s Day, February 13th, 1884, and Theodore Roosevelt was on top of the world. At 25 years old, the youthful New York congressman was at what appeared to be the height of his personal and professional life. That very morning, while serving at the New…

Economics can seem like a daunting subject. It’s a field that encompasses markets, supply, demand, human behavior, externalities, property rights, and…well, you get the point. But despite its intimidating nature, economics is a subject that everyone encounters in one way or another. And even if you don’t realize it, you…

Forgotten history of the Second Boer War — The country village of Irene is located on the eastern outskirts of Centurion, a large municipality in the South African province of Gauteng. It is a beautiful and charming village, one that seems both idyllic and reminiscent of simpler times. To the unassuming tourist, Irene can be taken at face…

A forgotten historical lesson on incentives — It was the 11th of November, 1620, when the Mayflower arrived at Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The two month voyage at sea had battered the 102 pilgrims on board, resulting in the death of one passenger and causing the illness of countless more. There is little doubt that the pilgrims felt…

A case study in government corruption and economic collapse — It was the late 1990s, and Robert Mugabe faced a problem. It was a problem that Mugabe had created through his own errors. As the dictatorial president of Zimbabwe, Mugabe instituted a series of poor economic policies in the 1990s that crippled the country’s economy. Mugabe’s worst economic policy—that of…

Enron is known as a symbol of corporate greed. But what if marketing trickery was really at the heart of the problem? — At the beginning of August in 2001, Enron was known as a successful, stable energy company that had made a fortune in the oil industry and was now pioneering a new form of financial commodity training. The company was wildly profitable, employing over 20,000 employees and solidifying its position as…

Examining the monetary phenomenon from an economic perspective. — If “pandemic” and “variants” were the buzzwords of 2020 and 2021, “inflation” will certainly be the word by which we remember 2022. Three months into the year, inflation has been a hot topic. A cursory look at recent headlines suggest that inflation is all anyone’s thinking about: From a Fox…