Economics Explained

The long-suffering generation of millennials are now set to be significantly poorer than both baby boomers and Gen X'ers.  Having entered the workforce during the fallout of the 2008 mortgage crisis and then being hit particularly hard during this current crisis has meant that today millennials only account for 3% of national wealth, where boomers at the same point in their lives accounted for 27%...

This is California, the Golden State and one of the largest economies in the world in its own right.  If California was counted as a sovereign nation it would be the fifth-largest in the world by GDP, with a 3.2 trillion dollar gross state product putting it just behind Germany and just ahead of India.  In this episode of Economics Explained, we'll explore the following questions: What made the st...

Communism vs Laissez-Faire Capitalism Both of these opposing theories are very extreme and, for what it's worth, don’t exist in any modern economies anywhere around the world today, despite what some nations might have you believe.  In this episode of Economics Explained, we'll explore the following questions: So what are the economic arguments for and against a communist economic system?  What ar...

The bottom line is the most important part of any functioning business. Profit after costs, expenses, and taxes.  The money that the founders and investors in companies get to put back into their pockets for the risk and effort they put into a business.  Sounds like business 101 right? And it kind of is. A business that doesn’t turn a profit is like a freezer that kind make ice, it’s more or less...

Inflation is something we more or less take for granted these days. The idea that 5 dollars today is not going to be able to buy 5 dollars worth of stuff in the future, and the fact that you used to be able to buy a family home for 10 grand, are all the result of inflation.  The idea that over time money becomes worthless and less influences a lot of decisions in out lives. Everything from retirem...

Inflation is something we more or less take for granted these days. The idea that 5 dollars today is not going to be able to buy 5 dollars worth of stuff in the future, and the fact that you used to be able to buy a family home for 10 grand, are all the result of inflation.  The idea that over time money becomes worthless and less influences a lot of decisions in out lives. Everything from retirem...

This is Taiwan, or officially, the Republic of China, a country in east asia, which if you can’t tell by how delicate I am being with these titles here is consistently under a bit of ehh let’s call it scrutiny.  So contentious in fact that any country that is doing business with the people's republic of china, you know China, has to officially declare that they recognize the island of Taiwan as th...

GDP is one of the most universally recognized terms in economics. Even outside people with an interest in the subject most adults would be able to tell you that GDP is a measure of how large an economy is.... But they might not be able to tell you how it’s calculated, or even what it stands for. In this episode of Economic Explained, we will explore the following questions: What are the limitation...

The Fire movement is a growing trend amongst young workers which is growing in popularity thanks to its very enticing goal which is spelled out in the name. FIRE is an acronym of Financial Independence and Retiring Early.  The idea is that by following a very aggressive saving and investing strategy people can get to a point where they are effectively retired at a very young age, sometimes younger...

Workers today are amongst the hardest worked individuals in history, while simultaneously being the most efficient.  Sure, they have traded in grueling factory floors and coal mines for air conditioned offices so they probably don’t get quite as much sympathy as their industrial revolution contemporaries but the world today is marred by different challenges. Hustle culture and the glorification of...

The economic impacts of 2020 have been felt far and wide and we have covered these problems in-depth in a handful of videos on this channel. But the logical question that most people are asking is what comes next?  Disasters happen and they are never pleasant but part of being a nation, a business, or even an individual is being able to deal with adversity and come out the other side. Because of t...

Economics is considered a social science, and although some other scientists from more “rigorous” fields don’t always welcome it into their little club, it still follows the same processes to explore the world around us.   And, as with science, or anything that is extremely complex for that matter, there are disagreements between practitioners at all levels of academia and throughout the entire hi...

The market for alternative investments has been a really exciting field in recent years, with everything from Bitcoins, to beanie babies being touted as the next must-have to outperform the boring old stock market.  Now some of these investments have been good some of these investments have been bad, and many haven’t been around long enough to really tell yet, but the aftermarket for high fashion...

Vietnam is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world today. In 2019 its growth was only beaten out by a selection of far smaller and far more unstable national economies.   With a huge and very hardworking population not to mention a powerful ally to it’s north this could be the country to watch out for in the next 10 years. But this success is by no means guaranteed. As with many other na...

China is not playing fair in the game of global trade, they are cheating other countries, companies, and consumers out of business by Manipulating their own currency.   So how does a nation like china control their currency? Can this actually be used to give an unfair advantage in global trade? If it can, why doesn’t every country do it? Can businesses profit from this man-made market failure? And...

Student loans are financial tools that have been put in place to give promising individuals the ability to get an education and increase their potential for future earnings with a strong professional career.   On a nationwide level having a well educated and skilled workforce is one of the strongest determinants of economic success. We have seen this time and time again with nations like South Kor...

Physical cash is one of the easiest ways to instantly and reliably conduct commerce.   It has been well-documented that the ease of transactions within a nation is as big of a determinant of a country’s success as is access to natural resources like oil and natural gas, or even a well-educated population.  So, what would happen if we got rid of cash? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megapho...

There are a lot of things that we take for granted in our day to day lives, and one of the big ones is how we spend a good portion of our waking hours.  Based on sophisticated youtube analytics we can determine that a majority of people watching this video are full-time employees working 40 hour weeks at their jobs  So is 40 hours really the optimal work week, and are their alternatives that are b...

The wealthiest generation in history is starting to retire, and die. In doing so they will be responsible for the greatest wealth transfer in history, as they pass along a collective 30 trillion dollars to their beneficiaries over the next few decades, just in the United States alone.    That kind of capital movement is going to have some extremely significant impacts on the economy some of which...

On the 30th of July 2020, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released its 2nd quarter Gross Domestic Product report. The report noted a 32.9% contraction in annual GDP growth in the months of April, May, and June.   For reference, the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis of 2008 saw an 8% drop in annualized GDP figures at its peak. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ancient Egypt was amongst the first major human civilizations in existence.  Outside of being genuinely fascinating the economy of ancient Egypt is enlightening to really pull apart because it represents an economy in it’s most basic form.   Targeted inflation, debt cycles, derivatives contracts, and even the financial sector are all crucial components of our modern and hyper-advanced economies. E...

The big short was a fantastic movie, for finance nerds and regular viewers alike. One of the lines that stood out the most, amongst many memorable lines, was the claim that for every 1% increase in unemployment 40,000 people die.   This is an incredibly significant claim, that adds even more weight to the already significant societal issues that come along with people out of the job.  So is this c...

Black Market Economics - What Drives the Underground Economy? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Vatican city. The smallest widely recognized sovereign state in the world.  This tiny nation exists entirely within these walls, but its influence is felt the world over. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are all manner of factors that make poor countries poor and rich countries rich. Many of these factors we have explored in depth when we have looked at economies like the democratic republic of the Congo all the way up to places like Switzerland and Norway.  Political Stability, industry, natural resource wealth are all incredibly important variables but there is something extra here that ju...