by Tim Harford | Oct 28, 2008 | Other Writing
From BBC Online. Is a stock market bubble a medical condition? You might well have thought so, had you taken a walk around a trading floor and looked at the behaviour of traders at the height of the dotcom bubble in 2000. “They were displaying classic symptoms...
by Tim Harford | Oct 25, 2008 | Undercover Economist
This morning, I had a remarkable experience: I strolled into a delicatessen and bought some delicious Stilton. What made the shopping trip unusual was that I was wearing a brain scanner while I did it. My costume consisted of an electroencephalograph (EEG) cap, which...
by Tim Harford | Oct 25, 2008 | Dear Economist
At the apartment block where I used to I live, I once parked in another tenant’s car bay for a brief period. The tenant called the wheel clampers and landed me with a $120 (£69) fine, despite the fact he doesn’t have a car and there were 30 spare car bays, and despite...
by Tim Harford | Oct 22, 2008 | Other Writing
The idea that ordinary people have a tendency to be caught up in investment manias is a powerful one, thanks in part to Charles Mackay, author in 1841 of the evergreen book Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Mackay’s most memorable...
by Tim Harford | Oct 19, 2008 | Other Writing
First published: Business Life Magazine, August 2008 You’ll all have heard the old proverb, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” But what happens if you give him a mobile phone? The economist Robert...
