Tuesday's Assorted Links
Cuban blackouts, American economy, airport hugs, election costs, and candy rankings
Hi y’all! Here are five stories from this week that contained some neat applications of economic principles or are related to teaching:
Cuba’s blackout a symptom of economic mess [Morning Brew]
The American economy has left other rich countries in the dust [The Economist]
One New Zealand airport is capping time spent saying goodbye by implementing a maximum hug time of 3 minutes [CNBC]
An estimated $15.9 billion will have been spent on all US federal election races, a record that narrowly eclipses the $15.1 billion dished out on 2020 campaigns [The Wall Street Journal]
A map of Halloween candy preferences by state [Axios]
Cocoa prices are up 200% from just a couple of years ago and you might expect chocolate bars to triple in price too. But they’ve only gone up about 10%. Why? The answer lies in the market power of major chocolate companies and the complex economics of the chocolate supply chain.
Chocolate Prices Are Rising—But Not as Fast as Cocoa
If you’re scrambling for last-minute Halloween candy, you may notice chocolate prices have crept up from last year—though maybe not as much as expected. In a year where inflation has pushed the price of everything from eggs to airfare higher, chocolate prices have only risen about 10%. It’s not a small increase, but when you consider that cocoa prices, the main ingredient in chocolate, have shot up 200% to 300% over the past two years, it’s surprising that chocolate bars don’t cost 3 times more than before.
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I've been to a lot of airports as both the one getting dropped off and the one dropping off another. I don't think I've ever needed 3 whole minutes for a hug. That seems extremely long! Although I do appreciate the suggestive-sounding "for fonder farewells, use the car park". *wink*
Funny, too, how all these articles about Cuba somehow seem to miss that it's an authoritarian communist country, and THAT'S why it has such an awful economy, leading to it being an unmaintained dump. This result is obvious and predictable (see also: North Korea, Venezuela, USSR, red China, and countless others). Instead we get excuses about the US trade embargo. "Communism is failing because capitalists won't do capitalism with them!!1!"
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2024-10-9-what-the-hell-is-going-on-in-cuba