The Next Financial Crisis: Virtual Banks
By now, the financial woes of Lehman, Bear Stearns, Washington Mutual, and the many other troubled banks is old news.
But we may need to start preparing for another round of bank failures … in the virtual world.
If indeed it happens, a character named Ricdic will likely be to blame. Ricdic is part of Eve Online, which I have never heard of, but according to this BBC news report “has about 300,000 players all of whom inhabit the same online universe. The game revolves around trade, mining asteroids, and the efforts of different player-controlled corporations to take control of swathes of virtual space.” Read More »
White House Economist Austan Goolsbee Answers Your Questions
Two weeks ago, we solicited your questions for White House economist Austan Goolsbee. You will find his answers below. Among the highlights: no, the Obama administration is not socialist; and no, Goolsbee will not be trapped into telling you whether he’d buy an American car. Thanks for the good questions and thanks especially to Goolsbee for the interesting answers. Read More »
Swine-Flu Spam
As the recession lingers and swine flu spreads, it appears that the antiviral drug Tamiflu has now surpassed Viagra as the most commonly spammed drug on the internet. Read More »
When Pricing Saves Lives
The Unthinkable author Amanda Ripley points to an interesting story about child safety in air travel. In the 1990′s, a call went out for the F.A.A. to stop letting air-traveling parents carry young children in their laps, making them buy a ticket for their children instead, so that every person could wear a seatbelt. The F.A.A. refused, saying that the cost of an extra ticket could force parents to travel by car instead. Read More »
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