Economics

  • Starbucks, Logan Square, and the State of American Unions

    So it seems that the local Starbucks– the one just across the alley from my house– has unionized: Starbucks workers add shot of unionizing | Chicago Tribune Just ahead of Labor Day, baristas at the Starbucks in Logan Square told management that they wanted to be represented by the IWW. A veteran of battles that…

  • Auction Action

    I am always fascinated by auctions, no matter what is being autctioned off. It’s a primal economic venue– buyers and sellers, optimists and losers, people coming and going. In any auction, there is a side who thinks it’s better to be rid of something and a side who thinks it’s better to have something. Tension…

  • Why I Don’t Like City Parents

    Not to take part in conversations with easy nodding and folded, breezy arms with other parents on sidewalks in front of real estate. That’s not my tribe. I am weirder, and not comfortable there, as it seems like an attempt at fake depth. I much prefer real shallowness, with the understanding of temporal built in.

  • Naked Economist

    A few years ago, when I was stressing over my inability to publish my third book, Economics, I took a continuing education class at the Graham School of General Studies called, oddly enough, Economics. I just wanted to get out of the house and engage with some people, and that’s exactly what I got out…

  • Mandarin Insurance Brochure Cover

      Mandarin Insurance Brochure Cover    Originally uploaded by juggernautco. So I was at a restaurant in Uptown recently and I picked up a nicely printed booklet that had a signficant amoutn of Mandarin text on it sprinkled with incomprehensible cartoon-like images. So I asked a friend who is a native of China what it…