Tuesday's Assorted Links
Savings Rates, High-Tech Soccer Balls, Shrinkflation, Shipping Containers, and Price Ceilings
Hi y’all! Here are five stories from the past week that had some interesting applications of various economic concepts:
Americans’ savings rate plunges to the lowest level since 2005 [Axios]
What does a new high-tech soccer ball mean for the future of analysis, fan engagement, and team data across the world’s most popular sport? [FiveThirtyEight]
Meet a man who has spent his life exposing companies engaged in shrinkflation [The New York Times]
The shipping container industry generated $58.9 billion in the third quarter of 2022, which is 158% higher than the combined profits of Meta, Amazon, Netflix, and Google [Fortune]
The Group of 7 (G7) nations agreed to impose a price ceiling of $60 per barrel on Russian crude oil [The New York Times]
Yesterday I looked at why Congress needed to intervene in the ongoing rail worker dispute. The industry has gotten incredibly large due to network effects, but firms exert a lot of monopsony power over local labor markets:
Week 48 is over and I have checked in 56 books for the year. Last week was a big week for me because I finished up a lot of books I was in the middle of reading. My favorite book of the week was John List’s The Voltage Effect. I was nervous to start reading this one because I thought it was going to focus more on how to grow a business. The book took an interesting turn and focused more on how other companies have (or have not) been able to scale their products. If you like a mix of business and behavioral economics, this is a good one to check out.