Tuesday's Assorted Links
Tuesday's Assorted Links
Crypto scams, median household income, cucumber shortages, grocery store competition, and women in tech
Hi y’all! Here are five stories from this week that contained some neat applications of economic principles or are related to teaching:
Americans lost more than $5.6 billion through cryptocurrency scams last year, a 45% increase from 2022 [Associated Press]
America’s median household income returned to its pre-pandemic ~$80,000 level in 2023, which is a 4% increase over 2022 [CNN Politics]
A TikTok craze has led to a cucumber shortage in Iceland [Forbes]
This cool visualization shows how competing grocery stores are distributed across America, and why it matters [Sherwood News]
Roughly 22% of U.S. high-tech jobs are held by women, which hasn’t significantly increased in 20 years [SC Media]
Misinformation isn’t just a tech problem; it’s an economic one. Despite the harm it causes, misinformation continues to spread like wildfire. Why? It all comes down to incentives.
There’s a market for false content—driven by clicks, shares, and profits. Understanding why people engage with misinformation and why current efforts to stop it often fail is key to curbing its spread.
The Economics of Misinformation
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"Roughly 22% of U.S. high-tech jobs are held by women, which hasn’t significantly increased in 20 years"
That's head and shoulders above sewage line maintainers, construction workers, loggers, roughnecks ... yet nobody seems to think having only 1% of those jobs being held by women is worth mentioning or changing