TikTokonomics

Some people have suggested I get on TikTok. But I just can’t imagine using TikTok as a teaching platform.

Well, someone has entered the TikTok-teaching-economics market. It’s Planet Money. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because I recommend their podcast for people interested in economics. Their TikTok not only teaches economics, it teaches me that I’ll never be able to connect with Zoomers. Check it out.

Incentives Matter

I wanted to give my oldest son an incentive for reading this summer. He reads well, but loves building Legos, trading Pokemon cards, and playing with friends, so he sees reading has a big opportunity cost. What to do?

I made him a deal. For every chapter book he read, he could get one Pokemon card. He seized on the deal, locked himself in his room, and within 24 hours had read 6 chapter books. His enthusiasm has since waned, but it was amazing to see how quickly economics got him to read.

Pirate Economics

I’m a CGP Grey fan, so I’m always eager to watch his latest videos. But his last two are off the charts great. He goes through the economics of pirates—not teenagers stealing music; like Captain Jack Sparrow pirates! There’s tons of game theory, so I recommend watching both the captain’s pitch and the quartermaster’s.

If you want to learn more, check out the book he based it on, The Invisible Hook.

Testing for Global Corruption

This week’s video was a fun one. How can we test for corruption across countries? What if we drop 17,000 wallets and see which countries return the most. The results might surprise you.