Tuesday's Assorted Links
Female leads, calling in sick, beach shades, pickleball, and politicizing the Fed
Hi y’all! Here are five stories from this week that contained some neat applications of economic principles or are related to teaching:
Films are more likely to star a man named Chris or a talking animal than an older woman [Variety]
A growing number of US employees plan to fake calling in sick to snag last-minute tickets to World Cup matches when they (hopefully) become cheaper [AOL]
East Coast beaches are suddenly overrun with a family-sized beach shade that flaps in the wind, prompting some seaside towns to crack down [Yahoo! Finance]
A slowdown in pickleball court construction in US cities suggests that the sport’s boom may be subsiding [Axios | Archive]
Former chair Powell uses award speech to warn against politicizing the Fed [Politico]
Bitcoin has been called the future of money for seventeen years, but the Federal Reserve’s latest survey found that only 2% of Americans actually used crypto to make a purchase last year. Let’s hold crypto up to the economist’s definition of money, which requires passing three distinct tests. If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, it’s worth a few minutes of your time.
The Currency That Nobody Spends
It’s been seventeen years since a mysterious figure named Satoshi Nakamoto launched Bitcoin in January 2009, born out of a crisis of confidence following the 2008 financial crash. Bitcoin and its peers emerged as an alternative to traditional banking systems that many felt had failed them.
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