Why are people hoarding toilet paper during the coronavirus outbreak? This is a phenomenon that is not uncommon in situations that require restricted movement, quarantines, or other unusual measures to contain a problem like a viral outbreak. There is a lot of derision over the panic buying of hand sanitizer, face masks, and toilet paper...what are the underlying causes? Fear Of Prolonged Problems Of all the reasons why people start panic … [Read more...]
Why Is It So Expensive To Live In A Major City?
Why is it so expensive to live in a major city? There are many variables; escalating rents, excessive licensing and permitting for small businesses, ever-escalating property taxes, and much more. What follows is NOT journalism. It is OPINION. And that’s a bit of transparency badly needed in today’s 24-hour news cycle reporting. But these are opinions made by observing conditions in a single major city for well over a 10-year period. I’m … [Read more...]
Shutdown?
As I have discussed here before, I'm a Federal Employee. And I'm not sure how much press this is getting outside of the DC Metro area (the DMV as it is often called, though I believe that acronym is taken by a much more painful entity), but we're looking at a government shutdown. Why? Because Congress can't decide on a budget. That's right, we've been operating without an approved budget for half the year already. In general, Federal employees … [Read more...]
No More Pennies?
Happy Birthday, President Lincoln. To celebrate, stores have decided to stop accepting the penny. That's right, in West Concord, Massachusetts, a number of stores are refusing to accept pennies as of today, calling pennies "wasteful and time consuming." Instead, they will round all purchases down to the nearest nickel. I suppose no one can really complain - after all, they will simply be getting a few cents off of their purchase. Buy a … [Read more...]
The Dollar vs. the Euro
Earlier this week, I read this article about the current state of the American economy. I found the discussion of the dollar versus the Euro to be fascinating. First off, I don't think that I knew that the dollar was considered "the leading international currency." Given the recent American domination in many areas, I suppose it makes sense, but I never thought of it as a leading currency. I knew that the dollar was often accepted in other … [Read more...]