Category:Economics
Trading Away Income Inequality: the Effects of Globalization
May 21, 2015 | Video
Income inequality in America is a serious issue. People are worried about a widening gap between the rich and the poor in the United States. But is the global story the same? Professor Tyler Cowen tells how, globally, income inequality worldwide is on the decline. Thanks to globalization and free trade, the world is richer, […]
Can Bitcoin Feed a Family?
February 21, 2015 | Video
Can Bitcoin help alleviate poverty? In developed countries with easy access to credit and banking, Bitcoin is still used mostly by criminals and early adopters–but in developing countries where credit and banking are difficult, if not impossible to access, Bitcoin helps workers not just to store their money, but also to cheaply and effectively send […]
Can Capitalism Save Lives? | Econ Chronicles
May 19, 2014 | Video
Thousands of people die in the US every year because there’s a shortage of willing kidney donors. Some people are saved by the generosity of friends and family, but many more suffer because no willing & compatible donors come forward. As in most countries, it is illegal to compensate donors in the US for donating […]
Everything's Amazing and Nobody's Happy | Econ Chronicles
May 13, 2014 | Video
People tend to think the world is much worse off than it actually is. Bad news gets a lot more attention than good news. Professor Bryan Caplan calls this “Pessimistic Bias,” and argues that it affects the policies people vote for. Despite the amazing economic gains of the past 100 years and even the past […]
Why Does 1% of History Have 99% of the Wealth?
April 29, 2014 | Video
For nearly all of human history, most people were very, very poor. But something happened after 1800. Average wages began to rise. For example, in the past 200 years, the average wage in the United States has gone from $3.00 per day to over $120.00 per day—and that’s adjusted for inflation. Why the sudden change? […]
Schools of Thought in Classical Liberalism, Part 4: The Austrian School
May 9, 2012 | Video
When people refer to the “Austrian School,” they are usually referring to the ideas of two prominent economists: Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises. Dr. Nigel Ashford highlights the similarities and differences of these two influential thinkers. On the one hand, Hayek tends to recognize the limits of human knowledge and reason. He argues that […]