Society has always tried to organize itself in some fashion. There are theories and practices, and laws are built around them. The society is able to establish these norms and form a system where goods, services, property, and currency can exchange hands. This is called an economic system. The most well known of all economic [...]

The Economist ran a story about how the PhD has become increasingly useless. They have lots of statistics about how as students PhDs are overworked and underpaid and then when they graduate the jobs they expected aren’t there. Even way back in the day, my own pops had the same problem. Today he’s been a [...]

International trade is an economic subject often ignored in traditional economics (I myself ignore it). But in a globalizing world it’s becoming more and more important every day. It is a component of the GDP calculation, and for most people in the US it’s the biggest thing you’ve never thought about. The grand total of [...]

Wall Street has been the epicenter for the American and world economy for almost 100 years. Before that, it was London, and before that, Rome. Part of what has made thses places so important to the world economy is that they were centers of trade and then centers of finance. This is because businesses need [...]

The following is a guest post written by David from Lender411.com. Lender411 lets you compare mortgage rates and provides information on loan products from reverse mortgages to commercial loans. If you’re like most of us, you probably pay to live somewhere. You either rent a place and pay by the month, or you “own” a [...]

This is my favorite topic I’ve studied in the last few months. I’m still learning about it, but I’ve learned enough to make it into a College of Weakonomics post. What is economic mobility? Economic mobility is something we all strive for without really knowing what it is. Economic mobility is the ability of someone [...]

A fairly advanced topic for the College of Weakonomics, hedge funds are shrouded in mystery. Much of this is thanks to a lack of regulation which leads to a lack of transparency, which leads to most people not really understanding what hedge funds are. For all intents and purposes, the best way to describe a [...]

The time value of money is a simple concept. A dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow. A dollar today is worth more than a dollar in a year. But this plain and simple concept is the foundation of all finance. It doesn’t matter if you’re taking out a loan for a car, [...]