How economies actually work

Start at the source — inflation, interest, the Fed, and the forces moving every dollar.

Start with

What Is the S&P 500?

An index of the 500 largest U.S. companies, used as a benchmark for the overall U.S. stock market.

5 min read · September 6, 2026Read more →

• What Is Monetary Policy?
• What Is Short Selling?
• What Is PCE?
• What Is Fiscal Policy?
• What Is GDP?
• What Is Nonfarm Payrolls?
• What Is Core Inflation?

The economic way of thinking — scarcity, prices, choice, and how markets coordinate.

Start with

Price Signal: How Markets Communicate Without Anyone in Charge

A price signal is the information a price conveys to buyers and sellers about relative scarcity, value, and opportunity.

3 min read · February 1, 2026Read more →

• Opportunity Cost: The Price of Every Decision You Make
• Inside Indifference Curves: What Consumer Preferences Look Like on a Graph
• Surplus: When Supply Exceeds Demand and What Happens Next
• The Total Revenue Test: The Fastest Way to Identify Demand Elasticity
• What Utility Means in Economics — and Why It's Not About Happiness
• Law of Supply: Why Higher Prices Bring More Sellers to Market
• Law of Demand: Why Higher Prices Mean Fewer Buyers

How firms produce and compete — costs, market structures, labor, and the factors of production.

Start with

Markup: How Much Above Cost Does a Firm Price?

Markup is the percentage difference between a firm's price and its marginal cost. It measures the degree of market power — competitive firms have near-zero…

3 min read · March 25, 2026Read more →

• Oligopoly: A Few Firms, a Lot of Interdependence
• Explicit vs. Implicit Costs: The Full Picture of What a Business Really Costs
• Minimum Wage: The Wage Floor and Its Effects
• How Monopolies Form and Survive: The Economics of Market Control
• Barriers to Entry: What Keeps Competitors Out of Profitable Markets
• Marginal Revenue: The Revenue From One More Sale
• Sunk Cost: Why Past Spending Shouldn't Drive Future Decisions

Where markets break and what to do about it — externalities, information, and government intervention.

Start with

Externality: The Cost or Benefit That Markets Forget to Price

An externality is an uncompensated cost or benefit that a market transaction imposes on third parties.

3 min read · April 18, 2026Read more →

• Pigouvian Tax: Making Polluters Pay the True Cost
• Subsidies Work — Just Not Always the Way Intended
• Positive Externality: When Transactions Benefit People Who Didn't Pay
• Pigovian Taxes and Subsidies: Putting a Price on What the Market Ignores
• Price Floors vs. Market Outcomes: Minimum Wage, Surpluses, and Who Gains
• Equity vs. Efficiency: Two Goals That Often Conflict
• The Four Types of Goods: Why Excludability and Rivalry Determine How Markets Work

Economics in the wild — trade, inequality, and the markets that shape daily life.

Start with

Platform Economics: The Two-Sided Markets That Reshape Industries

Platform economics analyzes two-sided (or multi-sided) markets where a platform intermediary connects two distinct user groups that each benefit from the…

3 min read · June 9, 2026Read more →

• Switching Costs: The Friction That Keeps Customers Locked In
• What Drives Income Inequality? The Economics Behind the Gap
• Trade Policy, Jobs, and the Political Economy of Protection
• Terms of Trade: The Exchange Rate Between Exports and Imports
• Trade Doesn't Cost Jobs — It Moves Them. Here's the Evidence.
• Protectionism: Shielding Domestic Industries from Foreign Competition
• Carbon Tax: Pricing Greenhouse Gas Emissions Directly