Eikonomics

  • Why did I give my wife a vacuum cleaner for Christmas

    It was actually a vacuum cleaning robot. That however did not change the impression on my friends faces when I explained to them what I planned on giving her. I am, however, convinced that had they listened to my arguments that they would have been more forgiving. You see, my wife and I are both…

    Eiki

  • Fake data: How bitcoin can (not!) predict the future of Tesla stock price

    I was running through my Twitter feed the other day and stumbled upon a a tweet by a fellow Icelandic economist, Viðar Ingason: Mjög gaman að sjá hvað öllum langar til að spá fyrir um toppinn á Tesla. Allt í lagi með það. En svona graf segir einmitt ekki neitt. Þetta kallast spurious correlation og…

    Eiki

  • The speed limit on the Autobahn

    The Autobahn is a world-famous German system of motorways. From afar it is not possible to distinguish the Autobahn from motorway systems in other countries. However, the Autobahn is very different in one way: on most of the Autobahn there are no speed limits. Want to drive 160? 180? 240? Fine, then do that. Obviously,…

    Eiki

  • What is Scrooge McDuck really worth?

    This article originally appeared  as a part of my regular column at Kjarninn.is. The original article is still available here (in Icelandic). I plan on publishing all my articles here on my blog in English (with some delay). Please forgive any typos as I can only afford so much time on translating the articles.  I…

    Eiki

  • Central Bank of Iceland has a predictable problem

    The Icelandic central bank has a tricky problem. They  have to make a long(ish) term predictions about inflation for the tiny island of Iceland. As Iceland makes almost nothing it consumes and most of what it makes is produced using resources from abroad The price level in Iceland is extremely sensitive to the depreciation of…

    Eiki

  • Do musicians age badly?

    This article originally appeared  as a part of my regular column at Kjarninn.is. The original article is still available here (in Icelandic). I plan on publishing all my articles here on my blog in English (with some delay). Please forgive any typos as I can only afford so much time on translating the articles.  In…

    Eiki

  • A tombola with a bias

    The other day I attended a street festival in a nearby street here in Cologne. Like any other street festival it offered a range of activities: home made food and cakes; flower headband workshop; and, of course, a tombola (also known as raffle in some places). Me, my partner and her brother purchased 5 tickets…

    Eiki

  • Heimat and the market

    Heimat is a German word with no good English equivalent. It describes the relationship of a person to a specific geographic (or social) unit. I myself have few Heimat’s. Iceland is one of them and Eherenfeld, my neighbourhood in Germany is another. It is my view that Ehrenfeld is the nicest neighbourhoods in the city…

    Eiki