When crime doesn't pay
A bizarre London crime wave, thieves stealing car parcel shelves and reselling them on eBay, becomes a way into the economics of crime. Taylor sketches the Becker-style idea that criminals weigh proceeds against the costs of getting caught, then argues the numbers here do not add up: smashing a windscreen is conspicuous, the shelves are bulky and hard to store, and you do not strictly need one anyway. Useful for rational choice, cost-benefit analysis and thin resale markets,
Are you secretly predicting a recession?
TikTok's 'recession indicators' (frozen pizza, instant noodles, expensive lipstick, Labubus, gold) get a properly economic once-over. Taylor explains the logic behind each, hunkering down rather than simply cutting back, then does something valuable for students: she pulls the indicators apart, noting the evidence is mixed, that they cannot say when a recession will hit, and that they missed shocks like Covid. The skirt-length, skyscraper and men's-underpants indices add colo
How much is a Freddo these days?
The Freddo returns as the nation's unofficial inflation gauge, from 10p in 2005 to 45p now. Taylor's angle is 'internal reference prices': the expectations we form from past experience, and why a Freddo stings so much (we imprint its 'normal' price in childhood and compare today's to pocket-money memories, not to last year). A neat parallel with US egg prices, and with how the age you first met dollar prices shapes your mental exchange rate, makes the behavioural point stick.