Updated 2/19/23 The first wave of globalization happened due to technological advances in transportation and communication that dramatically reduced transactions costs in the 1800s: Railroads, steel-hulled ships, the screw propeller, telegraph, etc. Then politicians raised tariffs, restricted immigration, and went…
Blog Archives
A history of the Corporation
There have always been large organizations that have done the kinds of things corporations do, but for most of human history, large organizations were run by religious hierarchies or governments rather than for-profit businesses. For-profit businesses were always small which…
Posted in Managerial Micro
The average Canadian became richer than the average American a decade ago.
Most people think that most Americans are richer than Canadians because that was true for most of history, but that ended a decade ago. The Great Recession of 2008 hurt Americans more than Canadians and the median income in Canada…
Posted in Medianism
What are the cheapest countries to visit? See the Travel Cost Index.
There is a lot of interest on blogs and discussion forums about the cheapest nations in the world to visit, but I found no good hard data on the internet. This is a bizarre hole in the world’s collective knowledge…
Posted in Globalization & International
Census updates median income data
There is a new Census Bureau map showing the median annual household income (averaged over the past five years) shows where America is richer and what areas are poorer. [Source: U.S. Census Bureau] It is particularly interesting to see the…
Posted in Medianism
Concentrated roadway power
Updated 12/12/2023 Cars killed 42,060 Americans in 2020 according to an estimate from the National Safety Council. That is more than were killed by guns in recent years. Driving is the most dangerous thing most Americans do every day and…
Posted in Public Finance
Mind the gap in life expectancy WITHIN America
Updated 6/6/2023 We read a lot about the growing political divide in America and we hear a lot of commentary about the two Americas in terms of income inequality. But a bigger inequality problem is the gap in life expectancy. …
Posted in Health
Medianism 