Peter Bain - TradingSmarts

Top Submitters' Top Submissions

1. 366 points, 45 submissions: benjaminikuta
   
   1. So, what's the difference between this new trade deal with Mexico and Canada and the old one, and what are the implications? (68 points, 12 comments)
   2. Do powerful unions increase wages above the optimal level, or do firms with market power cause imperfect competition in the labor market, causing sub optimal wages? (Or both?) (29 points, 2 comments)
   3. How do the salaries of high paid professionals compare between the US and various other developed countries? (28 points, 1 comment)
   4. Just how much more expensive is it to build on mountainous terrain than on flat land? How much more expensive would housing have to be before it's economical to develop the mountains of Hong Kong? (27 points, 5 comments)
   5. When it is said that someone in a third world country lives on a dollar a day, what does that actually mean? (25 points, 19 comments)
   6. How do economists measure unpaid work? (23 points, 8 comments)
   7. What's the economic effect of legal vs illegal immigration? (22 points, 10 comments)
   8. If someone saved enough money to live on investment income, could their descendants live off it indefinitely? (Assuming they don't spend the principle, reinvest to account for inflation, etc, of course.) (20 points, 46 comments)
   9. How effectively can negative externalities be quantified? (11 points, 7 comments)
   10. What are some common misconceptions about economics? (11 points, 19 comments)
2. 134 points, 11 submissions: Fart_Gas
   
   1. Is free public transport a good idea? (42 points, 20 comments)
   2. What caused the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis? (31 points, 13 comments)
   3. Would it be more economical for supermarkets to slightly under-stock? (21 points, 12 comments)
   4. Will Venezuela's plummeting economy make it a good choice for low-wage industries? (20 points, 8 comments)
   5. What might cause sudden inflation? (7 points, 2 comments)
   6. Why do some countries without hyperinflation use a foreign currency in everyday life? (7 points, 3 comments)
   7. Has any country tried reducing the minimum wage, and ended up with a good result from it? (4 points, 8 comments)
   8. Is Ordoliberalism feasible for most poor and recently war-torn countries? (1 point, 0 comments)
   9. Why do some businesses sponsor sporting teams in countries they don't operate in, and that they don't plan to expand to in the foreseeable future? (1 point, 1 comment)
   10. Is it inevitable that certain areas will never recover from a war? If so, why? (0 points, 0 comments)
3. 96 points, 5 submissions: MrZer
   
   1. Why do countries like France or Japan have a high debt to GDP but aren't in shambles like Greece? (43 points, 16 comments)
   2. Milton Friedman is well respected by many economists, why aren't there more Libertarians? (22 points, 18 comments)
   3. I've heard Marxists claim that central planning is good because the military and corporations do it. (20 points, 38 comments)
   4. Someone once said "Interest is what actually creates money. Without debt and interest, our economies would collapse." (7 points, 5 comments)
   5. What does it mean when people say China manipulates currency? (4 points, 7 comments)
4. 83 points, 17 submissions: Whynvme
   
   1. Do economists actually calculate consumer surplus empirically, or is it more of s theoretical concept? (19 points, 5 comments)
   2. If we have cobb douglas preferences, my demand for x is not a function of the price of y. How do substitution effects arise then? (13 points, 6 comments)
   3. Is me making more money than I would necessarily require to work( so more than my 'opportunity wage') for a job an economic inefficiency? or is ineffiency in labor markets a wedge between my marginal revenue product and my wage? (11 points, 3 comments)
   4. some basic macro questions (6 points, 5 comments)
   5. understanding equilibrium in a dynamic context? (6 points, 1 comment)
   6. Trying to understand economies of scale, e.g. costco (5 points, 5 comments)
   7. Why does inflation necessarily mean wages will be increasing too? (5 points, 3 comments)
   8. question about equilibrium tax incidence (3 points, 1 comment)
   9. trying to understand the utility of theoretical models (3 points, 3 comments)
   10. when firms are earning short run economic profit, does that just mean all factors of production are earning more than their opportunity cost? so firms entering the industry = labor and capital reallocating towards that industry by forming new firms? (3 points, 1 comment)
5. 65 points, 1 submission: imadeadinside
   
   1. If Bruce Wayne was revealed as Batman, would stock prices and sales skyrocket or plummet for Wayne Enterprises (65 points, 16 comments)
6. 57 points, 2 submissions: csObsession
   
   1. Do most economists think political and economic freedoms are intrinsically tied together? How do they explain the success of extremely authoritarian capitalist governments (Singapore, China, South Korea, Chile)? (37 points, 25 comments)
   2. Why are salaries for professionals so much higher in the United States than other developed countries? (20 points, 34 comments)
7. 53 points, 13 submissions: Experimentalphone
   
   1. Why do Information Technology workers are so high in demand and earn so much in Western countries but doesn't even get sustenance wage in Bangladesh? (30 points, 10 comments)
   2. Anyone know of a comprehensive list of all the sub disciplines one can do a PhD in Economics, Finance and Business? (6 points, 4 comments)
   3. Which PhD sub disciplines have the least math but still good employability prospects in academia and industry? (5 points, 19 comments)
   4. What is the best website to publish your working papers in Economics? (3 points, 4 comments)
   5. Do I have to prove factual assertions before providing my arguments on economic policy suggestions for a journal article? (2 points, 4 comments)
   6. Why is the Ready Made Garments industry of Bangladesh declining due to withdrawal of trade privileges of Western countries when prices are already competitive in the world market? (2 points, 1 comment)
   7. Are qualitative policy prescription papers accepted by most journals or are they better of in blog posts? (1 point, 7 comments)
   8. What is the best free website for working papers in Economics? (1 point, 3 comments)
   9. Where can I find data on work conditions and how hard is the work of foreign students who work alongside their studies legally or illegally? (1 point, 0 comments)
   10. Which metrics do I need, to find out the effects of outward remittance on a poor economy? (1 point, 5 comments)
8. 52 points, 6 submissions: FrankVillain
   
   1. Is China still considered a centrally planned economy? (16 points, 4 comments)
   2. Ressources on the Soviet industrial failures due to poor economics? (15 points, 2 comments)
   3. What is the reason behind France's high unemployment rate? (10 points, 13 comments)
   4. About Land Value Tax & Single Tax: how would it affect farmers and those of them who own their land? (9 points, 3 comments)
   5. Does welfare policies contribute to inflation? (2 points, 1 comment)
   6. If a Bitcoin is worth $1 000 000 and some persons like Satoshi have one or more millions of it... what power do they have? Can they disrupt the financial system with the huge amount of dollars that they have? (0 points, 8 comments)
9. 49 points, 9 submissions: Chumbaka
   
   1. Can someone explain M0 , M1 and M2 to me? (13 points, 2 comments)
   2. Why is inflation and deflation bad? (13 points, 8 comments)
   3. Can anyone explain why this happens and what it means? (10 points, 3 comments)
   4. Stupid question but : Why does printing lots of money lead to inflation? (5 points, 14 comments)
   5. Why aren't all banks Full Reserve Banking? (5 points, 3 comments)
   6. What does this stock market fall mean to the economy as a whole? (3 points, 4 comments)
   7. How do I pick an economist ideology to support? (0 points, 3 comments)
   8. Is investing in Forex worth it? (0 points, 15 comments)
   9. What is Fractional Reserve Banking? (0 points, 4 comments)
10. 47 points, 1 submission: furikakebabe
    
    1. The Tax Bill of 2017 reduced corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. Tax haven countries have rates as low as 15%. Why would companies be more likely to move money back to the US if they still aren’t getting a better rate? (47 points, 6 comments)
11. 47 points, 1 submission: gh0bs
    
    1. Why does the economy have to be a series of bubbles and bursts/corrections, rather than a sustained gradual growth? (47 points, 32 comments)
12. 45 points, 1 submission: wcoleman22
    
    1. For all the economists out there that got advanced degrees, what were your most influential assigned readings? (45 points, 23 comments)
13. 43 points, 1 submission: Crane_Train
    
    1. How could Venezuela fix its economy? (43 points, 17 comments)
14. 42 points, 4 submissions: Jollygood156
    
    1. Why didn't quantitative easing + low interest rates raise inflation high? (20 points, 36 comments)
    2. How do we actually refute MMT? (12 points, 69 comments)
    3. What is Nominal GDP targeting and why do so many people advocate for it? (6 points, 16 comments)
    4. How exactly are land value taxes calculated? (4 points, 3 comments)
15. 42 points, 1 submission: kornork
    
    1. With Soybeans piling up and a 12 Billion bailout from the trade war, how come tofu isn’t super cheap right now? (42 points, 3 comments)
16. 41 points, 1 submission: TheHoleInMoi
    
    1. Are there any papers/solid arguments about the benefits of having more local business as opposed to corporate consolidation? (41 points, 2 comments)
17. 39 points, 1 submission: infernomedia
    
    1. What are some of the most interesting results in economics that are widely well regarded by the academic community to come out in the last decade? (39 points, 7 comments)
18. 38 points, 1 submission: -reasonable-person-
    
    1. From an Economic Perspective What is the Most Effective Way for Mexico to end its Violent Organized Crime Problem? (38 points, 13 comments)
19. 38 points, 1 submission: ajsox22
    
    1. Does culture impact the growth and development of a nation's economy? (38 points, 15 comments)
20. 37 points, 8 submissions: MedStudent-96
    
    1. Quasi-convexity of the Indirect Utility Function? (12 points, 14 comments)
    2. Is my textbook wrong? (9 points, 8 comments)
    3. Interpretation of Lagrange Multipliers for Consumer (5 points, 4 comments)
    4. Consumer Demand Interpretation for Cobb Douglas-Non Convex to Origin. (4 points, 6 comments)
    5. Do monopolies produce the same as a competitive firm in the long run? (4 points, 8 comments)
    6. In some circumstances can a monopoly leave the consumer better off? (1 point, 3 comments)
    7. Two Period Consumption Savings Model (1 point, 3 comments)
    8. [General Equilibrium] Proving that in the limit case the core shrinks to the set of competitive equilibrium. (1 point, 0 comments)

Top Submitters' Top Submissions

1. 322 points, 37 submissions: benjaminikuta
   
   1. So, what's the difference between this new trade deal with Mexico and Canada and the old one, and what are the implications? (71 points, 12 comments)
   2. The EU is considering making product life expectancy a mandatory piece of info for consumer electronics. What would the economic implications of that be? (64 points, 24 comments)
   3. Do powerful unions increase wages above the optimal level, or do firms with market power cause imperfect competition in the labor market, causing sub optimal wages? (Or both?) (27 points, 3 comments)
   4. How do economists measure unpaid work? (24 points, 8 comments)
   5. When it is said that someone in a third world country lives on a dollar a day, what does that actually mean? (22 points, 19 comments)
   6. What are some common misconceptions about economics? (14 points, 19 comments)
   7. What would be a better alternative to Bernie's proposal to tax employers of welfare recipients? (14 points, 65 comments)
   8. How effectively can negative externalities be quantified? (10 points, 7 comments)
   9. To what degree has the internet increased the liquidity of the labor market? (7 points, 3 comments)
   10. What happened with the Greek economic crisis? (7 points, 5 comments)
2. 146 points, 30 submissions: Whynvme
   
   1. When economists refer to industrialization, does it mean a move from agricultural to manufacturing economy? Is the growth in services a different term? (22 points, 6 comments)
   2. Do economists actually calculate consumer surplus empirically, or is it more of s theoretical concept? (20 points, 5 comments)
   3. If we have cobb douglas preferences, my demand for x is not a function of the price of y. How do substitution effects arise then? (11 points, 6 comments)
   4. Is me making more money than I would necessarily require to work( so more than my 'opportunity wage') for a job an economic inefficiency? or is ineffiency in labor markets a wedge between my marginal revenue product and my wage? (11 points, 3 comments)
   5. why is ceteris paribus important for analyzing/thinking about the world? (11 points, 7 comments)
   6. Why does inflation necessarily mean wages will be increasing too? (6 points, 3 comments)
   7. some basic macro questions (6 points, 2 comments)
   8. what is meant by value added? (6 points, 3 comments)
   9. Trying to understand economies of scale, e.g. costco (5 points, 5 comments)
   10. Why would an economy implode long term if there are decreasing returns to scale? (5 points, 15 comments)
3. 95 points, 2 submissions: MrDannyOcean
   
   1. Announcing a new policy direction for /AskEconomics (75 points, 135 comments)
   2. The new rules for AskEconomics are now in place. Please see the details within. (20 points, 20 comments)
4. 79 points, 7 submissions: Fart_Gas
   
   1. Is free public transport a good idea? (41 points, 20 comments)
   2. Will Venezuela's plummeting economy make it a good choice for low-wage industries? (17 points, 8 comments)
   3. What might cause sudden inflation? (8 points, 2 comments)
   4. Why do some countries without hyperinflation use a foreign currency in everyday life? (8 points, 3 comments)
   5. Has any country tried reducing the minimum wage, and ended up with a good result from it? (3 points, 8 comments)
   6. Do boycotts really work? (1 point, 3 comments)
   7. Why do some businesses sponsor sporting teams in countries they don't operate in, and that they don't plan to expand to in the foreseeable future? (1 point, 1 comment)
5. 66 points, 7 submissions: FrankVillain
   
   1. Can the Euro become the global currency for trade? (17 points, 3 comments)
   2. Is China still considered a centrally planned economy? (16 points, 4 comments)
   3. Ressources on the Soviet industrial failures due to poor economics? (14 points, 2 comments)
   4. What is the reason behind France's high unemployment rate? (9 points, 14 comments)
   5. About Land Value Tax & Single Tax: how would it affect farmers and those of them who own their land? (7 points, 3 comments)
   6. Does welfare policies contribute to inflation? (2 points, 1 comment)
   7. If a Bitcoin is worth $1 000 000 and some persons like Satoshi have one or more millions of it... what power do they have? Can they disrupt the financial system with the huge amount of dollars that they have? (1 point, 8 comments)
6. 66 points, 1 submission: imadeadinside
   
   1. If Bruce Wayne was revealed as Batman, would stock prices and sales skyrocket or plummet for Wayne Enterprises (66 points, 16 comments)
7. 64 points, 6 submissions: Serpenthrope
   
   1. Have there been any serious proposals for economic systems that don't use money? (23 points, 67 comments)
   2. Could a company ever become quality-control for a market in which they're competing, assuming no government interference? (16 points, 4 comments)
   3. Is there a formal name for this? (15 points, 6 comments)
   4. Why are second-hand clothing donations fundamentally different from other types of imports? (5 points, 1 comment)
   5. I saw this article on a UN report calling for the dismantling of Capitalism to stop Global Warming, and was wondering what most economists think of the claims? (3 points, 4 comments)
   6. Peter Navarro and Lyndon Larouche? (2 points, 1 comment)
8. 62 points, 2 submissions: JeffGotSwags
   
   1. What are the most commonly held misconceptions about economics among people with at least some background? (36 points, 38 comments)
   2. How did the financial crisis affect the demand for economists? (26 points, 5 comments)
9. 61 points, 11 submissions: Chumbaka
   
   1. Can someone explain M0 , M1 and M2 to me? (13 points, 2 comments)
   2. Can anyone explain why this happens and what it means? (11 points, 3 comments)
   3. Can a monopoly also be a monopsony? (10 points, 13 comments)
   4. Why is inflation and deflation bad? (10 points, 8 comments)
   5. Stupid question but : Why does printing lots of money lead to inflation? (5 points, 14 comments)
   6. Why aren't all banks Full Reserve Banking? (5 points, 3 comments)
   7. What does this stock market fall mean to the economy as a whole? (4 points, 4 comments)
   8. How would an universal free market deal with situations like NK? (3 points, 21 comments)
   9. How do I pick an economist ideology to support? (0 points, 3 comments)
   10. Is investing in Forex worth it? (0 points, 15 comments)
10. 60 points, 6 submissions: Jollygood156
    
    1. Why didn't quantitative easing + low interest rates raise inflation high? (20 points, 36 comments)
    2. How do we actually refute MMT? (14 points, 68 comments)
    3. Tax Cuts boost Consumption, but the growth is short term while investments are long term. Why? (12 points, 7 comments)
    4. How exactly are land value taxes calculated? (6 points, 3 comments)
    5. What is Nominal GDP targeting and why do so many people advocate for it? (5 points, 16 comments)
    6. What even is Austerity? (3 points, 3 comments)
11. 49 points, 1 submission: Akehc99
    
    1. Those who went into the job market after an Econ Undergrad, what do you do and briefly what does it entail? (49 points, 27 comments)
12. 48 points, 1 submission: Traveledfarwestward
    
    1. What do most Economists think about The Economist? (48 points, 26 comments)
13. 48 points, 1 submission: piltonpfizerwallace
    
    1. What would happen if the US printed $12.3 trillion tomorrow and paid off all of its debt? (48 points, 31 comments)
14. 47 points, 6 submissions: lalze123
    
    1. Will Bernie's "STOP BEZOS" plan lower the opportunity cost of hiring non-poor workers, thereby harming poor workers? (19 points, 15 comments)
    2. What does the current economic literature say about the effects of net neutrality? (14 points, 0 comments)
    3. What government programs have been empirically proven to help displaced workers from import competition? (8 points, 0 comments)
    4. By how much does lowering the budget deficit lower the trade deficit? (5 points, 4 comments)
    5. What are some good studies analyzing the difference in efficiency between markets and central planning? (1 point, 1 comment)
    6. Is the study below reliable? (0 points, 3 comments)
15. 45 points, 1 submission: gh0bs
    
    1. Why does the economy have to be a series of bubbles and bursts/corrections, rather than a sustained gradual growth? (45 points, 32 comments)
16. 42 points, 1 submission: Turnt_Up_For_What
    
    1. You've just been declared supreme potentate of Venezuela. Now how do you fix the economy? (42 points, 24 comments)
17. 41 points, 1 submission: Crane_Train
    
    1. How could Venezuela fix its economy? (41 points, 19 comments)
18. 41 points, 1 submission: TheHoleInMoi
    
    1. Are there any papers/solid arguments about the benefits of having more local business as opposed to corporate consolidation? (41 points, 2 comments)
19. 39 points, 5 submissions: UyhAEqbnp
    
    1. Does income inequality really matter? (19 points, 39 comments)
    2. What happens when there's a surplus of labour? Can there ever be a point where the wages earned are less than the cost of living? (10 points, 2 comments)
    3. Several questions (4 points, 4 comments)
    4. "Keeping seniors from retiring does not boost wages via aggregate demand" (3 points, 5 comments)
    5. Is Okun's Law valid? (3 points, 3 comments)
20. 39 points, 4 submissions: justinVOLuntary
    
    1. Best resource on the financial crisis of 2008 (17 points, 7 comments)
    2. Blogs? (11 points, 5 comments)
    3. Econ Internship (7 points, 5 comments)
    4. Not sure if this is the kind of question I should be asking here. I’m an Undergrad Econ major and I’m looking for reading recommendations. Anything from economic theory, history, current research, etc. Main interest is Macro. Thanks (4 points, 5 comments)
21. 39 points, 2 submissions: ConditionalDew
    
    1. How much would the iPhone be if it was made in the US? (37 points, 15 comments)
    2. Who are some famous people/celebrities that were economics majors? (2 points, 2 comments)
22. 39 points, 1 submission: rangerlinks
    
    1. Who are the best economist to follow on Twitter? (39 points, 16 comments)
23. 36 points, 5 submissions: CanadianAsshole1
    
    1. If free trade is so good, then why do countries insist on making trade deals? Why can't we just abolish all tariffs? (18 points, 11 comments)
    2. If climate change is such a huge problem, then why aren't countries utilizing nuclear energy more? (8 points, 17 comments)
    3. Do I understand the problem with"trickle-down" economics correctly? (6 points, 38 comments)
    4. How much of the Reagan administration's deficits could be attributed to increased defense spending? (3 points, 3 comments)
    5. If automation will result in less jobs, then shouldn't the government stop incentivizing childbirth through tax credits and stop immigration? (1 point, 12 comments)
24. 35 points, 7 submissions: MedStudent-96
    
    1. Is my textbook wrong? (11 points, 8 comments)
    2. Quasi-convexity of the Indirect Utility Function? (9 points, 14 comments)
    3. Consumer Demand Interpretation for Cobb Douglas-Non Convex to Origin. (4 points, 6 comments)
    4. Do monopolies produce the same as a competitive firm in the long run? (4 points, 8 comments)
    5. Interpretation of Lagrange Multipliers for Consumer (4 points, 4 comments)
    6. Optimisation when MRTS > price ratio (2 points, 7 comments)
    7. Help with the Partial Derivative of the Marginal Cost Function. (1 point, 10 comments)
25. 35 points, 1 submission: grate1438
    
    1. Why do Croatians receieve so much more through their pension than their working wage? (35 points, 8 comments)

Digital currencies are risky, volatile investments, and that's what speculators love about them.
A group of Silicon Valley venture capitalists and Wall Street fixtures are spending $133 million on a cryptocurrency that's boring by design.
The startup behind it wants to create an "Algorithmic central bank," inspired by economic principles that underpin fiat currency to adjust supply and minimize price swings.
"We've designed this to be a cryptocurrency but without the volatility that we believe has prevented popular adoption to date," said co-founder Nader Al-Naji.
Basis said Wednesday that it sold $133 million in a pre-sale coin offering to the venture capital arms of Alphabet Inc. and Bain Capital, as well as Andreessen Horowitz, Foundation Capital and Lightspeed.
Economists have supported Basis's thesis that drastic price fluctuations common among digital currencies will limit their mainstream appeal as a place to store money long-term.