Results for “markets in everything”
1885 found

Betting markets in everything

by  Tyler Cowen in

BetUS.com figures the odds are 20-1 that someone will get trampled
while scrambling to snag one June 29.  The site has also put odds on how
long the batteries will last and whether the devices will be recalled.

Here is the source, and thanks to John De Palma for the pointer.  There are many other odds at the link, spontaneous combustion of the phone is listed at 150-1.

Markets in everything

by  Tyler Cowen in

Dutch students have developed powdered alcohol which they say can be sold legally to minors.  The latest innovation in inebriation, called Booz2Go, is available in 20-gramme packets that cost 1-1.5 euros ($1.35-$2).  Top it up with water and you have a bubbly, lime-colored and -flavored drink with just 3 percent alcohol content.

It also avoids the taxes, here is more information.

Markets in everything — roundup edition

by  Tyler Cowen in

1. $1 million for prostitutes who will out their Congressional customers 

2. Getting you through phone links to a real human being

3. Or rent a new credit score

4. Blockbuster movies backed by bonds

5. Insurance against losing your Michelin star

What a day.  Hail Gerard Debreu!  Hail the MR readers who sent these in!  I didn’t even have to pay them…

Outsourcing markets in everything

by  Tyler Cowen in

…the Pasadena Now
web site apparently posted an ad saying "We seek a newspaper journalist
based in India to report on the city government and political scene of
Pasadena, California, USA."

Via Matt Yglesias.  Dani Rodrik has relevant and oft-overlooked remarks, though I think he is underemphasizing the case where trade starts by bidding people into higher-wage jobs.

Markets in everything

by  Tyler Cowen in

Because keywords are sold through online auctions, prices often spike
for those connected with big breaking-news stories.  On the day of the
Virginia Tech shootings, the cost per click of buying phrases such as
"Virginia Tech," "Virginia Tech shooting," and "Virginia Tech massacre"
jumped as high as $5.  Over the following week, prices dropped to six or
eight cents a click, according to Reprise Media, a search-marketing
firm owned by Interpublic Group.  A longer-lasting news term, such as "Iraq war," costs on average 39 cents a click, Reprise says.

Here is the full story, and thanks to Nick for the pointer.

Markets in everything, Baghdad corpse kidnap edition

by  Tyler Cowen in

Criminals in Baghdad are stealing corpses from the scenes of car bombings and murders in order to extract "ransoms" from grieving relatives.

In a macabre off-shoot of the capital’s kidnapping epidemic, the gangs pose as medics collecting bodies to be taken back to the city’s overflowing morgues.

Instead, though, they take the corpses to secret hiding places and then demand payments of up to £2,500 a time to release them to relatives for burial. Because Muslim custom dictates that a body must be buried as soon as possible after death, many families simply pay up, rather than involve the police.

The new racket in "dead hostage taking" is thought to be run by gangs connected to the city’s sectarian militias, many of whom are already involved in conventional kidnappings.

Iraqi police said the gangs often responded to car bombings, which can leave more than 100 corpses on the streets. In the chaos, police and army units seldom questioned the credentials of people posing as ambulance crews.

Here is the full story.