Tuesday's Assorted Links
Guaranteed basic income, banking aspirations, Central Park, IKEA, and Aldi
Hi y’all! Here are five stories from this week that contained some neat applications of economic principles or are related to teaching:
Boulder, Colorado’s guaranteed basic income experiment has helped reduce stress and ease immediate pressures, but long-term challenges have seen little change 20 months in [Business Insider]
Most major corporations, from airlines to social media platforms, now aspire to become unregulated banks [Jacobin]
In Central Park, pedestrians, horses, and e-bikes battle for space [The New York Times]
IKEA is raising prices on some products and working to source more goods in the U.S. because of Trump’s tariffs [The Wall Street Journal]
Aldi is charging $40 for a 10-person Thanksgiving meal this year, $7 cheaper than last year [Grocery Dive]
Our recent post on the cardboard Bbox index struck a chord with readers and found its way into the hands of several national outlets. I wanted to share one of the more interesting interviews, which was a conversation with Rachel Lerman at The Washington Post about creative ways economists track what’s happening in the economy.
This week’s post looked at the lawsuit between Smucker’s and Trader Joe’s over a crustless PB&J sandwich. It’s a reminder that even in markets as ordinary as grocery shelves, firms compete as much on perception as on price. Differentiation can be the difference between breaking even and building a billion-dollar brand.
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Did not know about the basic income experiment. And I feel for IKEA. They are caught between a rick and a hard place. I imagine the US is a major market for them.