Although protestors in Detroit and Ireland say water is a human right, economists, citing a definition of a public good and a tornado alarm, would disagree.
With debated impact, a little more than half of the thousands of rules necessary for implementing the financial regulation in Dodd-Frank have been written.
Because we tend to abuse and overuse publicly shared resources, the result is a tragedy of the commons that includes China's air pollution.
Because "I Voted" stickers indicate voting is a social norm, like paying taxes or saving electricity, people are more likely to act like their neighbors.
A controversial policy that dates back to 1938, the nominal federal minimum wage has increased from $.25 to $7.25 and is higher in many states and cities.
This week's everyday economics stories included spillover, externalities, incentive, opportunity cost, sovereign debt, demand and financial intermediaries.
Whether looking at a woman who needs close to $360 to pay her rent or a railroad that needs to be built, financial intermediaries are an economic necessity.
Guilty of probability neglect, we should listen to Warren Buffett's advice on investing and use cost/benefit analysis whenever emotions overwhelm logic.