From article The Great Flood and Great Famine of 1314. Historic UK. Ben Johnson. DURING THE WINTER AND SPRING OF 2013/2014, BRITAIN SUFFERED A PROLONGED PERIOD OF DESTRUCTIVE WINTER STORMS, resulting in widespread flooding and damage. However this was not the first time that country had been devastated by heavy periods of rain and bad weather. … It rained almost constantly throughout the summer and autumn of 1314 and then through most of 1315 and 1316. Crops rotted in the ground, harvests failed and livestock drowned or starved. Food stocks depleted and the price of food soared. The result was the Great Famine, which over the next few years is thought to have claimed over 5% of the British population. IT WAS THE SAME OR EVEN WORSE IN MAINLAND EUROPE. … The shortage of crops pushed up prices of everyday necessities such as vegetables, wheat, barley and oats. BREAD BECAME EXPENSIVE AND BECAUSE THE GRAIN HAD TO BE DRIED before it could be used, of very poor quality. Salt, the only way at
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Mostly summarized from Gregory Mankiw’s Principles of Economics, 5th Ed. PART 7 Topics for Further Study Chapter 21 of 36 The Theory of Consumer Choice Section 9 of 26 … Figure 5 here … Figure 5 - Perfect Substitutes and Perfect Complements Panel (a) when two goods are perfectly substitutable, such as nickels and dimes, the indifference curves are straight lines. Panel (b) when two goods are perfectly complementary, such as left shoes and right shoes, the indifference curves are right angles. … The shape of an indifference curve shows the consumer's willingness to trade one good for the other. When the goods are easy to substitute for each other, the indifference curves are less bowed. When the goods are hard to substitute for each other, the indifference curves are more bowed. … Consider the two extreme cases · perfect substitutes · perfect complements Perfect Substitutes Suppose someone offers you the choice of bundles of nickels or dimes. Most likely you would care only abo
From article U.S. Tax Army to Expand. Chris Edwards, Cato. August 2022. The Inflation Reduction Law will vastly expand the size of the Internal Revenue Service. THE IRS CURRENTLY HAS 82,000 EMPLOYEES AND THIS LAW WILL BOOST THE NUMBER BY ROUGHLY 87,000. … That expansion promises to damage small‐ and medium‐sized businesses and undermine civil liberties. Politicians complain about tax cheats, but NONCOMPLIANCE IS LOW IN THE UNITED STATES COMPARED TO OTHER COUNTRIES. … All those new IRS employees will lower GDP growth rate rather than increasing it. Besides increased tax payments ANOTHER COST WOULD BE THE INCREASED TIME AND ENERGY NEEDED BY TAXPAYERS, LAWYERS, AND ACCOUNTANTS TO DEFEND against a more aggressive IRS. … The Inflation Reduction law adds or EXPANDS A SLEW OF SPECIAL‐INTEREST TAX BREAKS and creates a parallel corporate tax structure based on financial statement income. Those misguided changes would also increase tax compliance costs on the private sector. … The Office of Ma
Mostly summarized from Gregory Mankiw’s Principles of Economics, 5th Ed. PART 7 Topics for Further Study Chapter 21 of 36 The Theory of Consumer Choice Section 8 of 26 … Figure 4 here … Figure 4 – Bowed Indifference Curves Indifference curves are bowed inward. This shape · shows the marginal rate of substitution (MRS) · depends on the quantity of the two goods the consumer is currently consuming Starting at point A the consumer has little pizza (3) and much Pepsi ( . He requires much extra Pepsi to induce him to give up one of the pizzas, to move from point A to point C. The A to C MRS is 6 pints of Pepsi for 1 pizza. Starting at point B the consumer has much pizza (7) and little Pepsi (3). He requires only a little extra Pepsi to induce him to give up one of the pizzas, to move from B to D. The B to D MRS is 1 pint of Pepsi for 1 pizza … Here we consider four properties of most indifference curves. Property 1 – higher (further right) indifference curves are preferred to lower ones
From article Trump raid is about desperate attempts by Biden administration to keep Trump off the ballot. Larry Kudlow. August 22, 2022. I continue to believe the FBI raid on Trump’s house is not about presidential documents, but about desperate attempts by the Biden Administration to keep Donald Trump off the ballot in 2024. But a bunch of smart folks I know think THIS OUTRAGEOUS INVASION VIRTUALLY GUARANTEES THE FORMER PRESIDENT NOW WILL RUN FOR PRESIDENT IN 2024. … But I want to step back for a moment and look at an even bigger picture. FROM DAY 1, PRESIDENT BIDEN HAS REVERSED EVERY SUCCESSFUL TRUMP POLICY, most importantly large tax cuts and major deregulation that gave us the most prosperous economy in many generations, … UNDER TRUMPENOMICS, IT WAS THOSE OF THE LOWEST INCOME LEVELS WHO BENEFITTED THE MOST with big pay hikes. Tax avoidance fell sharply. Offshore money returned home to the U.S. … When combined with deregulation, with eight regulatory reductions for every increase, b
From Russian Revolution. History..com. In 1917, two revolutions swept through Russia, ending centuries of imperial [tsar] rule and setting into motion political and social changes that would lead to the eventual formation of the Soviet Union. However, while the two revolutionary events took place within a few short months of 1917, SOCIAL UNREST IN RUSSIA HAD BEEN BREWING FOR MANY YEARS PRIOR TO THE EVENTS OF THAT YEAR. … In the early 1900s, Russia was one of the most impoverished countries in Europe with an enormous peasantry and a growing minority of poor industrial workers. Much of Western Europe viewed Russia as an undeveloped, backwards society. The Russian Empire practiced serfdom, a form of feudalism in which LANDLESS PEASANTS WERE FORCED TO SERVE [AS SLAVES] THE LAND-OWNING NOBILITY WELL INTO THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. In contrast, the practice had disappeared in most of Western Europe by the end of the Middle Ages. … In 1861, the Russian Empire finally abolished serfdom. The emanc
Mostly summarized from Gregory Mankiw’s Principles of Economics, 5th Ed. PART 7 Topics for Further Study Chapter 21 of 36 The Theory of Consumer Choice Section 7 of 26 … Figure 3 here … Figure 3 - The Impossibility of Intersecting Indifference Curves A situation of intersecting indifference curves can never happen. According to these indifference curves the consumer would be equally satisfied at points A, B, and C, even though point C has more of both goods than point A. … Four properties of indifference curves: Property 1 - higher (farther right) indifference curves are preferred to lower ones Property 2 - indifference curves are downward sloping Property 3 - indifference curves do not cross Property 4 - indifference curves are bowed inward … Property 3 - Indifference curves do not cross Suppose two indifference curves did cross, as in Figure 3. Because point A is on the same indifference curve as point B, the two points would make the consumer equally happy. Because point B is o
From article Biden's student loan handout taxes the poor and throws gas on the inflation fire. Sen. Richard Burr. August 25, 2022. Biden's student loan handout plan is Robin Hood in reverse. It takes from the poor to gives to the rich. Government spending is a major cause of inflation, and inflation is a tax on the poor. This Congress has spent massive amounts of taxpayer dollars in the past two years, leading to historic highs in inflation not seen since the 1970s. The Biden administration’s policies on federal student loans are only making inflation worse, EFFECTIVELY IMPOSING A TAX ON THE POOR TO BENEFIT THE RICH OR BETTER OFF. … FOR THE PAST 29 MONTHS, NO BORROWER OF FEDERAL STUDENT LOANS HAS BEEN REQUIRED TO MAKE A SINGLE PAYMENT on those loans, costing the American taxpayer $4.5 billion a month, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That’s added a total of $103.5 billion to our nation’s debt, all so people with college education don’t have to bear the responsibi