The Government Actually Gets Something Right

Most people who know me know that I'm not always the biggest fan of the government. I mean, nothing gets me down like The Man. But according to this article, there is at least one thing that the government and I agree on: hoverboards are pretty much the worst. 

A necessary evil

An unnecessary evil

See, I find hoverboards to be pretty annoying. First of all, they don't actually hover. I see those wheels touching the ground. They aren't fooling anyone. When you can get me a full-on Jetsons, fly-around, 1970s-vision-of-what-2003-looks-like type of hoverboard, I am totally game. But these monstrous little creations can just wheel themselves right back into whatever Pit of Evil they came out of.

Acceptable hoverboard that is NOT made of lies

In addition to not actually hovering, hoverboards are annoying, not as fun as they claim to be, and are really dangerously unsafe. There have been countless reports of them malfunctioning and catching on fire, along with the obvious elements of the ease with which a user could face-plant into the concrete. Now, like many of the things Americans just can't get enough of, hoverboards are manufactured in China and imported into the United States. However, ability to import this product is soon to change. The International Trade Comission has moved to stop the import of hoverboards so they are no longer a viable, legal thing for China to export to America. Along with hoverboards being declared unsafe by another American agency, the U.S Consumer Product Safety Commission, there have also been some legal issues concerning the technology used in hoverboards, which the American company Segway claims to have a patent on. Personally, I think people fighting over who gets to claim they created the hoverboard is like all the different European countries fighting over who really caused the conflict in World War I. Yes, eventually someone gets to claim "credit," but is it really a victory? Who's to say.

Anyway, international trade is an important facet of the American economy. Americans like stuff, and  we like stuff cheap, and a majority of that cheap stuff we like comes from foreign countries. However, international trade can't always be free trade. International trade is important to our economy -- it keeps money flowing not only within the U.S but between the U.S and other countries that creates circular flow on a grander scale -- and its importance is exactly why it needs to be regulated. Governing bodies, like the ITC, sometimes have to intervene in import and export policies to make sure that Americans aren't purchasing goods that are too problematic. Because international trade is, well, international, it involves a lot of different countries with different policies regarding what is safe and viable as a consumer good. Some goods that are deemed sellable in other countries do not meet the safety standards or legal practices in the U.S, which means that importation of these items needs to be stopped, at least until there is further investigation. And I don't think we need to do too much investigating to decide that hoverboards don't really need to be a player in international trade. 

Same, news update thingy. Same.

 

Raining on our Inflationary Parade

This is a two-part blog of excellent economic adventures, because I have no sense of short, straight-to-the-point writing.

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PART ONE: THE STORM
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I don't know if you've been keeping up with our global economy, but if you have, you'd know that it is craptastic. Is there even such a word? Well I'd like to imagine that if a person is doing so badly a job at something that instead of saying fantastic, the freudian slip would instead be craptastic because -wow- some countries's economies right now are just so craptastic.

Why do we care about what other countries are doing? Well unfortunately, apparently, we're in a global market so we can't exactly put up a wall and ignore their existence (yea I'm talking about you Donald Trump) so their well-being kind of affects us. It's sort of like that one sick kid in your classroom. As much as you'd like to just pretend that they're totally not raining on the happy parade school brings to everyone's day, viruses spread through the air and affect your health too, so I guess you give that kid medicine or something? Or maybe just not rub it in their face about how healthy you are, which apparently the U.S. has to do now since we have a few sickly, malnourished kiddos in our global classroom.

Wow, you can almost see the viruses of bad economic decisions.

So Japan's economy isn't really making the world look very good right now. They've gone and done the unthinkable, passing policies that had people dropping their porcelain cups of coffee and dramatically fainting with arms thrown back like in those old-timey movies. If you didn't know, Japan has decided to pass a policy on these fantastic, risky things called *gasp* negative interest rates. Ah, what? Wait did I read that right, negative interest rates? Is that... possible? Like, how does that work? Question mark???

Okay, it's a little weird. Countries typically don't play around with negative interest rates, because they can get kind of complicated. In general, if a country enforces a negative interest rates policy, they are essentially encouraging banks to help pump more money back into the economy.

Now, now. You can't bring that money here. Go out and buy yourself a nice, new suit.

A country's federal bank will penalize the smaller banks if they withhold too much money in their reserves. This method helps promote spending by the consumers to help kickstart the economy. Okay yea, I mean that makes sense, what's wrong with that? It helps speed up the circular flow, so why would this cause issues? Don't worry, I didn't really see the problem at first, but after watching heck tons of business news shows and reading all of the articles, ever, you'll see why this can be sort of problematic. Truly desperate times call for truly desperate measures.

Let's make some inferences on why negative interests rates are not the best. So, you're one of the commercial banks, and the Fed just said that you can't hold too much of the consumers's deposits in your reserves, because they need consumers to start spending more. Alright, but uhhh, you're a bank, and one of the things you really need to depend on is people saving their money in your bank while also borrowing money. But how are many people gonna borrow money if you don't have a lot in the reserves? Alright, well if the fed's gonna make you feel the pain, you do the most logical thing: make the consumers feel the pain by raising the rates you charge to save their money. Makes sense right? Well, you see people don't like that. These hypothetical consumers then decide to deny the need for a bank account and withdraw all of their money from the bank and keep it in a safe at home, because why should I pay a company so much to hold my money when I can do it for free at home? Okay yea one person, not so bad, that is until it's a lot of people. And now it's a lot of people per bank. And there's lots of banks in your country. Welp. That went really well. You see, negative interests may seem great in theory, but they really can turn bad really quickly under various circumstances. That hypothetical situation I just discussed? Not only is it putting millions of consumers in risk by not having their money protected, but it also harshly damages the financial district of our economy, which is also pretty important to help the circular flow. Pretty complicated huh? Now do you see why we can't exactly ignore Japan's sudden onset of negative-interest-rateitis, because yes I am a doctor, and I am so qualified to diagnose sickly countries.

How does this all tie in to the good 'ole stars and stripes? Tune in next time to find out the exciting conclusion to this two-part series of self-doubt and worry!

Why Are So Many Old TV Shows Being Rebooted?

Recently there have been many old tv shows brought back or been made into sequels: Heroes, Full House, and 24. It has become very popular to remake shows; I know that some of the favorite shows such as Prison Break and Gilmore Girls are also going to be rebooted. So why are so many shows being rebooted?

One factor that plays in this is the success that the other reboots have had. Hawaii 5 O's reboot took off as well as Fargo. This success caused other popular old shows to be reconsidered. Shows that people believe were cancelled too soon or just ended to soon were reconsidered. Though rebooting has been a success for some shows, other shows such as Heroes didn't get as lucky. Heroes: Reborn got cancelled after one series. One reason why this show might have been more of a bust then others is that not many of the original cast members returned. On shows like Fuller House and 24 most of the original cast returned. Demand greatly affects shows being rebooted. Demand is one of the most important things to a network, they keep shows that are in high demand, and they also bring back shows that were in high demand and still are now. With a demand increase there has to be an increase in quantity, which is where TV show reboots come in (or another season being made for a current show).

Cut - It - Out

The second factor that explains why TV show reboots have become popular is that recently networks have been more okay with shows that are targeted at a narrower demographic. Networks, used to favor shows with larger demographics, like sitcoms. Which is why through the 80s and 90s you see many comedic sitcoms that are targeted at a wide range of demographics. Shows that didn't have as much of a wide range were usually cancelled to make way for a new show that can target more demographics and bring in more viewers. You might be wondering at this point how this applies to economics, and the answer is again-demand. Demographics are a huge way to increase demand; that's why a wide range was always favored. Now however, demand is still high yet in a smaller range, this is by changing the show to target a specific group of people and advertising it well for that group. If you can target one group really well than that show can be just as successful and have just as high a demand as if it just loosely targeted a wide range of people.

The third factor is new technology. With DVR, online streaming, and video on demand, TV shows are much more accessible. Traditional cop shows and sitcoms were more popular back in the day because if you missed an episode you would be ok, you probably wouldn't miss any major plot point. While serialized shows often got cancelled because people couldn't keep up. But with DVR, and video streaming serialized shows (shows where you can't miss a single episode) have become more popular because if you can't watch it that night then you can find another time to.

I know everyone hated this but I loved it!

Lets be honest there can be many more reasons that old TV shows are rebooted. You don't see me arguing though, I love so many shows that ended and with all this rebooting it gives me hope again. Some people hate that shows are getting rebooted because they think it will ruin the name and be a let down, but for me I love it. You can't compare the reboot to the original show; sometimes they are different. But if you truly loved the original show you can just be happy they brought it back. Unless its Heroes: Reborn, and they leave out all of your favorite characters and replace them.

Wait, Did Gas Prices Just Go Up?

Ever since I heard about how low gas prices are bad for our economy, I've sent pictures of the low gas prices to my friends every time I get gas. So during spring break, I pull in to get gas and look up to take a picture and realize gas prices went up. . . about 30 cents. I'm sitting at 7-11 waiting to get my gas and wondering, how are gas prices up? I don't remember a lot of things, but if I've learned one thing in economics this year it's that we have a surplus of oil which equals low gas prices.
This increase in price had me wondering, what happened? Was there an oil spill I didn't hear about? Did a million gallons of oil just disappear into thin air? Our amount of oil supply couldn't have changed that much, so what was causing this increase in gas prices? According to CBS, during spring and summer gas prices increase because refineries have their annual maintenance done. All during this time, places switch to their summer-grade fuel. Summer-grade fuel, is gas that has a lower RVP (Reid Vapor Pressure). RVP is a measure of how easily fuel evaporates at a certain temperature. Summer-grade fuel has a low RVP to help prevent fuel from evaporating too much on a hot day. Winter-grade fuel is just the opposite, high RVP to help fuel evaporate on cold days.

The change from winter to summer-grade fuel requires a bunch of work at the refineries and the summer-grade is more expensive to produce. This is why gas prices increased and why I couldn't send a picture of low gas prices to my friends and say "what a shame."

The Cost of Vintage

As someone who absolutely loves vintage and vintage reproduction clothing, I've come to realize that my interest has a high price. I have so many reasons why I dress the way that I do, but none of them have to do with logic. There is so much variety within my closet. Probably the most I've spent on a single item in my closet is around $150 for a vintage reproduction skirt. I wear it all the time, and I truly think it's a worthy investment.

Skirt by Pinup Couture.

 However, even though I love this particular skirt, the exorbitant cost causes a loss in my bank account and therefore an  opportunity cost. Instead of being able to buy several modern skirts and/or items, there is a loss because of the fact that you are only getting a single item for $150. Most people would believe that this is completely and totally out of the question. I guess it does depend on how often the individual wears the item. For example, it would actually not be an opportunity cost if I wore this skirt every day. As I'm writing this, I'm feeling worse about purchasing it...but it's beautiful!

Another huge cost of vintage/vintage re-pros is it's really hard to find cute vintage items, in my size, in good condition, for a good price. Now, most people who know me/see me know that I am tiny. But if we're being honest--women and men were differently built back then. Most items I find are about the size of an XXS. & if I do find an item in my size, they're not always the cutest things in the world. This is mostly an issue of scarcity. Think of it this way. It goes back all the way back to the decade when the clothes were made and sold. If the women back then did/did not save clothing, then that's already a certain amount of clothes excluded from the market. So in a way, I really can;t blame any of the vintage sellers for selling items at the excessive prices that they do. Because believe it or not, vintage is coming back, style wise and therefore a good, cute, quality, vintage piece that's out on the market is going to sell insanely quick. 

Welcome To The Grand Collusion

One of the biggest economic issues of the year is the surplus and decreasing value of oil. With so much oil available, competitors continued to drop prices so as to remain competitive and win more consumers to their business rather than a different company. However, the continuously dropping prices were pretty damaging to the companies and the economy overall. Individual companies could not afford to not lower their prices any more because consumers could just switch to readily available substitutes with lower prices, because most consumers don't realize or care that there are other factors involved in economics and they just go where the prices are the best. So, one day in economics class we posed the question of why oil companies don't get together and agree on a baseline price that none of them can go below so that all of them could remain profitable and not have to worry about competing prices getting too low. We were informed that - despite the good intentions - this would be collusion, and collusion is wrong. 

Well, some people don't practice what they preach.

Some people.

You see, collusion is defined as "secret or illegal cooperation in order to cheat or deceive others." Were the oil companies to get together and decide that they would arbitrarily fix the price to make more money, that would be cheating the market. Supply and demand would dictate that the price could be lower, but because of sneaky, underhanded deals, things don't work out how they're supposed to. Collusion seems pretty unfair, yeah? Well it gets worse. The oil market is all well and good, sure, I guess it's important or whatever, but we all know what really matters in life: "friendly" games of Monopoly. 

Few people know that the man in the top hat is actually

the devil, ready to shake your hand and seal the deal

selling your soul in exchange for a hotel on Park Place. 

"What does collusion have to do with a board game that offers fun for the whole family?" one might ask. Well, the optimism in this question is charming but extremely misguided, as there is nothing fun or family about Monopoly. Monopoly is named after the economic term "monopoly" (the exclusive possession or control of the supply or in a commodity or service) that is in itself a type of corruption, but monopoly is a kind of cutthroat every man for himself type of corruption whereas collusion is a lethal combination of teamwork and selfishness. So what does collusion have to do with Monopoly? Well, it has no business being involved, but some people are just bad people.

So let's say you're playing Monopoly, and someone - hypothetically of course - decides to trade all of their properties and money to someone else for a single dollar. I know what you're thinking: no one would do that, that is ridiculous and stupid, and I fully agree. That's why this is all hypothetical. Because no one would ever think to do such a thing. But for funzies, let's say someone did. Whoever this person made an underhanded deal with would now have much greater control over the board as well as an unfair stake in the flow of cash through the market. This, sad to say, is collusion. You see, the parties involved cooperate to take down other competitors. Let's say neither Party A nor Party B is talented enough at Monopoly to win on their own, so Party B decides to knock himself out of the running and help Party A. Party B knows that he cannot win in any scenario, so he decides to help Party A and ruin the days and spring breaks of the other involved parties. 

Now I like to think I'm a pretty reasonable person and a good sport when it comes to games. (I'm not, but I do like to think I am.) But reasonable or not, as a red-blooded American I am truly bothered by dishonesty and corruption in my economics and in my board games. 

Every time collusion happens in America, a 

majestic bald eagle loses its wings. 

Trust me, I am a scientist. 

So, how does collusion damage the economy? Well, collusion involves rival companies conspiring against the consumer or other competitors for mutual benefit, which affects competition in the market. Collusion can involve dividing the market, setting prices, limiting production, and limiting opportunities. Collusion is damaging to the consumer, damaging to the integrity of the market, and damaging to the soul. Avoid collusion at all costs, not only because it is wrong but also because it can  negatively impact small businesses with delicate blue eyes and kind hearts who find themselves bankrupt in a Monopoly game unfairly and before their time. And if you are going to collude, which I do not endorse, it is probably in your best interest - hypothetically of course - to collude with someone who always actually posts their blog posts on time. 

Swooning over Macarons

Okay the title only makes more sense if you read macarons as macaroons.

So, let's backtrack through the year and talk about the wonders of utils. You know what utils are right? What. You don't remember?? So shameful.

Utils are a unit of measurement for the utility of a good or service. Measuring a good or service's utility is the same as measuring the usefulness a person finds in them. So, while the infinite number of utils Alyssa can find in eating another donut, someone like Zoe, who doesn't love donuts as much, can find a significantly smaller number of utils in said donuts.

Now, while we all may poke fun at Alyssa's obsession with the wonderful sugary, fried circle pastries that are donuts, we could all sympathize. There are always some foods in this world that you just really question yourself, "Do I really need to buy another one? I only have enough money to get home, but that's more than enough to buy another one.... I'm gonna buy another one." Okay let's hope you don't actually get stuck in a situation like this, but there is always one delicious food item in this world that will really make you question your self-restraint. And I was faced with such an ordeal, and failed. Miserably

Just look at them!! So cute and delicious

Have you ever had a macaron? They're not always amazing every time you try one, but once you've found a good one. Wow.

Here's the real lesson in this blogpost: learn how to control your obsessions or else you'll almost, almost, spend lots of money you don't have.

So, when I went to San Francisco this past summer, I had the pleasure of walking around the boardwalks and checking out all the need stores and restaurants. Well, just my luck that I found this cute little pastry shop called Miette Patisserie, which is french for Crumb Pastry. How cute. Anyways, I saw jars and jars full of different flavored macarons for only $1.50 a macaron. And these macarons looked soooo heavenly. Really, the $1.50 for these nicely sized macarons was not a bad price, so I bought around 6 macarons, 1 of each flavor. I won't describe to you the amazing, deliciousness that were these cookies, but let's just say, after eating those macarons, I bought about 5 dozen more over the period of 3 days left of my trip. Yea. Like I said, it was real bad.

Shameless advertising for my most favorite dessert shop ever.

I tried controlling myself from buying more macarons, I really did. But really, let's look at this in a utility standpoint! I had only a scant number of days in a city that requires many hours of air travel, these macarons were relatively cheap, and wow they are so freaking good. I don't know about you, but that's quite a number of utils I can get by buying another macaron. Well, decision paralysis may have been... some sort of factor in my choice to buy macarons. I was thinking about all those non-price affecting factors for my reasons to buy another macaron, that oh look at that, I'm already buying another dozen.

Economics can be a kind of dangerous thing wants you understand it. Trying to reason with yourself to buy more macarons by analyzing utility really is just not good for your money when the utils are off the charts.

Shhh... logic is not welcome when macarons are on the line.

Okay, but that wasn't even the really bad part. When I got home from San Francisco, and finished the dozen of macarons that I had bought to bring home to Texas, I was so obsessed over these cookies that I googled the restaurant and found out YOU CAN SHIP MACARONS. But uhhh, one small problem. There's kind of a shipping fee, that kind of requires a plan to ship it, in kinda of a short amount of time. It kind of cost like $60 to ship about $12 worth of macarons....... I'm so glad I have some basic understanding of self-restraint, because wow was I heavily weighing the pros and cons of buying those macarons. To be fair, those utils, they never lessened. They're still very, very high.

In the end, I didn't spend $72 for a dozen macarons, but did I really almost consider that the utility of getting a dozen macarons flown from San Francisco was really worth it? Hecks yea I did.