Tag: Economics

Skyrocketing prices are an age-old problem. Here’s how Roman emperors battled runaway inflation

Skyrocketing prices are an age-old problem. Here’s how Roman emperors battled runaway inflation

by | Feb 4, 2026 | | 0

Reading time: 5 minutes
For much of the third century, the Roman Empire faced unprecedented crises, including foreign invasions by the Persian Sasanians and conflict with various Germanic tribes, such as the Goths. There were also civil wars, plagues, disease outbreaks and food shortages. This period is now known as the Crisis of the Third Century. Political stability was a distant memory; dozens of short-reigning emperors were installed and deposed as these problems grew worse.

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From micro to macro, Andrew Leigh’s accessible history covers the economic essentials

From micro to macro, Andrew Leigh’s accessible history covers the economic essentials

by | Jun 24, 2024 | | 0

Reading time: 6 minutes
Andrew Leigh’s The Shortest History of Economics is the latest in a series of such histories, mostly focused on particular countries.
It begins with a striking mini-history of household lighting, focusing on the amount of labour required to produce the light now given off by a standard lightbulb: 58 hours for a wood fire, five hours for a candle based on animal fat, a few minutes for an early electric lightbulb, and less than one second for a modern light-emitting diode.

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A Continent’s Currency: 20 years of the Euro

A Continent’s Currency: 20 years of the Euro

by | Jan 6, 2022 | , | 0

Reading time: 6 minutes
The central unit of money for much of Europe, the EURO first entered circulation on January 1, 2002.
pride, these cultural emblems can indeed be an emotional declaration of nationalistic pride. A country’s currency is then no less another unique symbol, a “Made in…” concretization of the nation’s economic prosperity and in many cases independence from colonial rule.

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