The 2019 budget in Ireland saw the VAT rate increase from 9 to 13.5%. VAT (value added tax) is a charge on goods and services. So this basically meant that goods and services were going to cost more. Obviously, this could lead to a reduction in consumption because it's possible that consumers wouldn't be willing... Continue Reading →
I am a huge fan of Nirvana. Definitely not as big a fan as I used to be, but still an avid listener. I suppose one of the reasons my interest in Nirvana has dwindled slightly since my teenage years is that the music doesn't speak to me as directly as it once did. When... Continue Reading →
One thing that I love about music is the story of its' timeline. I love how different genres and styles emerge one after another. What I find most interesting about these styles and movements is how they gather momentum. For example, after Ed Sheeran enjoyed such incredible success record labels began looking for more guitarist... Continue Reading →
In keeping with the recent seasonal effects pieces that this blog has been doing, this post will examine the start of the consumption of A Fairytale of New York for this year's Christmas season. I took a look at how much we consume this song last year here. However, I thought it may be worth while to... Continue Reading →
One of the posts on this site, available here, looked at something I called the St. Patrick’s Day Effect. This is when the event of St. Patrick’s Day takes place and as a result there is an increase in the consumption of goods and services which are associated with Ireland. I thought seen as we... Continue Reading →
During my time as an undergraduate and post-graduate student, I worked in McDonald's. While I won't say that I miss the job, I will say that it served me well. The low wage I received was sufficient enough to get me through the weeks in college. This year I am lecturing a macroeconomics module where... Continue Reading →
It's a very common misconception that economists just study the economy. That is only one aspect of economics. There is a huge amount of economic research which concerns itself with health. So for this week's post I thought I'd write a piece which touched on this. Specifically, I am going to show how to run... Continue Reading →
A few posts back I wrote about the difficulty of using proxies in music. Proxies are approximate measurements used to measure things which are difficult to quantify. That post discussed the use of proxies to try and determine which band was the greatest ever. This proves difficult because there is no one measurement for greatness and... Continue Reading →
Even though the X-factor does have some contestants with amazing vocal abilities, the best part of the show is arguably watching the auditions. As nice as it is to see people give good performances, watching bad ones can be incredibly funny. A lot of the times when I'm watching these bad auditions I find myself... Continue Reading →
