Money Archives

Financial Scarcity Affects These 5 Areas of Your Life

What are the consequences of a lack of money? How does an insufficiency of financial resources affect other areas of one’s life? A scarcity of financial resources has overarching consequences for our whole lives. In their book Scarcity, behavioral science researchers Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir highlight five areas most affected by financial scarcity: health, parenting, memory, work productivity, and sleep. Here’s a look at the effects of financial scarcity, according to Mullainathan and Shafir.

How a Lack of Money Impacts Economic Decision-Making

How does a lack of money affect economic decision-making? Why are poor people more rational decision-makers? According to behavioral science researchers Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir, financial scarcity forces people to become experts at making a dollar stretch further. As a result, poor people tend to make more rational economic decisions. Here’s how a lack of money affects economic decision-making.

How Does a Country Make Money? Adam Smith Explains

How does a country make money? What separates a wealthy country from a poor country? Many economists consider Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations one of the major foundational texts of their discipline. Writing in 1776, Smith argues that free markets are the best institution for cultivating a nation’s wealth. Keep reading to learn the basics of how a country makes money.

Adam Smith’s Labor Theory of Value: Everyone’s a Merchant

Could you live your life without ever buying something that someone else produces? What do you produce that others buy? In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith lays much of the groundwork for the field of economics. He makes the case for free markets, and he puts forward his theories on what markets exchange and how they’re able to facilitate this exchange. One of his theories is that labor is the basis of value. Let’s take a look at Adam Smith’s labor theory of value.

Is Market Self-Regulation a Thing? Adam Smith Thinks So

How are prices set? What role does competition play in an economy? Do markets actually regulate themselves if they’re free? In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith argues that free markets are the most efficient way of directing the production and exchange of goods to grow a nation’s wealth (and thereby enable the specialization of labor). He explains the mutually-beneficial interplay of markets and prices. Read more to understand Smith’s argument that market self-regulation really works.

Why Are Prices So High Right Now & Will Inflation Go Down?

Why are prices so high right now? When will inflation go down? Will prices go back to normal anytime soon? Inflation, which took off in 2021, has surprised economists with its durability, remaining at levels not seen in 40 years. Recently, though, it’s started to decrease—however, prices for everything are so high that consumers are left wondering if they’ll ever return to normal. Read on to learn why prices are so high right now and what economists predict will happen in the coming year.

Adam Smith’s Principles of Taxation: Tackling a Necessary Evil

How is ethical taxation achieved? How can taxes be less disruptive to the economy? In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith shares his general principles for how taxes ought to be collected and assessed. He also analyzes specific forms of taxation in light of his principles and explains how each tax is problematic in its own way. Let’s review Adam Smith’s principles of taxation and his analysis of three common tax policies.

What Is Dark Money? Political Lobbying Under the Table

What is dark money? How is it used to influence politics in America? Journalist Jane Mayer describes how the wealthy elite in America, particularly conservative business tycoons Charles and David Koch, used their fortunes to propagate far-right ideology in American politics. They’ve done this, she says, through dark money. Read more to understand what Mayer means and to understand how lobbying is supposed to work.

The Citizens United Ruling & Project REDMAP: Shifting Right

What was the Citizens United ruling? What was Project REDMAP? What impact did these have on American politics? In Dark Money, Jane Mayer discusses the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling and Project REDMAP in the context of the Koch brothers. She explains how the ruling and the project led to a shift rightward in American politics, particularly in the states. Read more to learn about the Citizens United ruling and Project REDMAP—and to see how money and politics converge.

How to Transcend a Poverty Mindset

How does your mindset influence your financial success? How can you shed your self-sabotaging beliefs about money and adopt a rich mindset? The beliefs you hold about money greatly affect your financial outcomes. If you have a poverty mindset, you’ll end up poor even if a large sum of money lands in your lap (e.g. through inheritance or winning a lottery). Here’s how you can transcend the beliefs and ideas about money that keep you stuck in poverty.