In the continuing fallout from the Reinhart-Rogoff scandal on debt-to-GDP levels, people continue to weigh in on the usefulness of economists. This time it’s a professor at Harvard asking “What Use Are Economists?” There is one other thing that the public should know about economists: It is cleverness, not wisdom, that advances academic economists’ careers. [...]

Instead of one story today, I want to point at three with a common theme. They all deal with stuff we know to be occurring, but we either don’t understand it or can’t see it happening. These hidden aspects of our world play a very big role in how the world we can see works. [...]

Some interesting research highlights things we thought were doing right. As usualy we got it wrong. 1) We Eat Too Much After Exercising There’s nothing like a good workout! Burn some calories, get the heart rate up, and maybe even some fresh air. As the population leaves factories and farms for offices and cubicles the [...]

We’re just days away from a compilation of “what happened in 2012” and “what’s going to happen in 2013” type stories. Admittedly, I enjoy them as much as you do and have written a few in my day. But let’s take a little bit of a longer view and see what a new report has [...]

Yes yes I know what you’re thinking, “not another story about the fiscal cliff”. But you need to trust me on this. I’m not interested in trying to scare you. In fact, the first story should probably make you feel better about the situation. The last one will make you want to throw up. But [...]

A collection of healthcare related stories: Pay doctors differently, they save more lives: Doctors currently get paid based on the services they provide. So if you need an MRI then you get charged for the MRI and the doctor takes a cut. Ignoring our soaring health costs today, this model has worked fairly well. But [...]

The Weakonomist is currently enjoying an overdue vacation after a strenuous summer. In the coming days look for some posts about some of the behavioral obersvations I’m making. In the mean time, please check out one of the most amazing things I’ve ever read. It is perhaps the best social commentary out there that ties [...]

The baby boomer generation is getting old. They’ve long become parents and now grandparents which means many are getting to retirement age. Apparently they’re retiring at a pace of 10,000 a day and will continue to for the next two decades.   It’s a good thing they aren’t all retiring at once though because there’s an [...]