In the run-up to last year’s festive period, many stock investors were eagerly anticipating their annual gift from Father Christmas – the Santa Claus rally. This refers to a seasonal upwards trend in the US stock market during the last five trading days in December and the first two in January. According to the Stock Trader’s Almanac, the S&P 500 historically tends to rise by an … Continue reading The Fed vs. Santa
The largest cause of shocks to worldwide stock markets in recent years – other than COVID 19 – has been the threat of the introduction and escalation of the trade war between the US and China. During this conflict, hundreds of billions of dollars have been wiped off the global economy, with the brunt of economic losses being felt by the US and China. In … Continue reading China-US Trade Wars: What are the strategic reasons behind China’s stance?
When it comes to incarcerating criminals, there are two options in the US: state or private. A state prison is entirely owned by the government. The government then needs to oversee almost everything, from hiring the guards to providing the building itself. Although, even with state prisons, much of the work, such as food service and prisoner transportation, is outsourced to private contractors. With a private prison, … Continue reading The Economics of Private Prisons
Since 1896, when global warming was first publicly shown to be a consequence of burning fossil fuels, humanity has wrestled with the conundrum of how best to respond to this looming threat. Against the background of politicisation associated with climate change, economists have argued over the benefits and detriments of introducing a carbon tax: a way of taxing companies which emit greenhouse gases so as … Continue reading Should a form of Carbon Pricing be introduced in the US?
Cees Armstrong and I had the pleasure of interviewing Professor Sunstein, the Robert Walmsley Professor at Harvard Law School. Professor Sunstein is the best-selling author of many books, including the critically acclaimed Nudge, as well as the most cited law scholar of all time. He now works with the US government. Continue reading An interview with Professor Cass Sunstein: Nudges, economic systems, and freedom
With over 200,000 deaths in the USA at the time of writing, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted one of the nation’s most pressing and long-standing issues. American healthcare ranks as one of the worst in the developed world, despite the fact that the US has the highest national GDP. What factors could have caused this? We shall begin by justifying the premise that American healthcare … Continue reading Why is American healthcare so expensive?
For the American people, football’s social importance is on a par with religion. Football is so integrated into America’s quotidian that it’s not uncommon to find a town’s entire population either supporting the Friday night High School Football game on the television screens at a bar, or in the stadium bleachers. At the highest level, the National Football League dominates Sundays, as well as Monday … Continue reading The Economics of the NFL
From increasing investor expectations through his landmark tax cuts to huge tariffs on Chinese exports, the effect of Donald Trump on the stock market has been stark. Continue reading The Trump Effect
“Few propositions command as much consensus among professional economists as that open world trade increases economic growth and raises living standards.” – Nicholas Mankiw, the Robert M. Beren Professor of Economics at Harvard University, once said of free trade. Although this view has been adopted by an overwhelming majority of economists (including Adam Smith himself), it has not experienced popularity among the Western electorate in … Continue reading Please, Mr Trump, free trade is not evil
Tension between the United States and North Korea has reached a stage where missile strikes have become an alarming possibility. If tensions escalate further to a state where military action looks almost certain, game theory could offer us insight into finding the best strategy to tackle the problem. Firstly though, what does Kim Jong Un hope to achieve by possessing a nuclear arsenal? It is … Continue reading The US v. North Korea: The role of game theory
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