Tuesday's Assorted Links

Book owners, stadium funding, payment methods, home schooling, and theme parks

Hi y’all! Here are five stories from this week that contained some neat applications of economic principles or are related to teaching:

1. A survey found almost 1 in 10 Americans do not own a single physical book while 3% of Americans own more than 1,000 books [YouGov]

2. Ever wonder why taxpayers are paying for sports stadiums? [The Daily Show 📺]

3. According to an annual study from the Federal Reserve, just 17% of US payments were made with coins and notes in 2022 after they accounted for a third of all payments in 2015 [Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta]

4. A district-by-district look at home schooling’s explosive growth, which has far outpaced the rate at private and public schools [The Washington Post]

5. Six Flags, Cedar Fair merging to create $8 billion theme park behemoth [CNN Business]

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Earlier this year, Mexico emerged as the United States’ top trading partner, exchanging a staggering $532.68 billion in the first eight months of the year, surpassing China. This transformation marked a significant shift in U.S. trade dynamics.

This week’s post explores some of the factors behind Mexico's rise, from its expanding manufacturing base to the underappreciated role of transportation costs and the impact of protectionist policies, shedding some light on the complexity of international trade.