William Baumol Econ 490 fall 2017

Description: With the abundance in resources and the ease in which people use to spread information, the issue of misinformation has become more and more prominent. Facebook is one of the platforms that has received lots of attention as of late for not handling misinformation. With the claims that there were campaigns to misinform people during the Brexit vote and even the recent presidential election, the company made the decision to combat it. There were a bunch of solutions that people suggested Facebook take. Some wanted a bunch of moderators to be hired, or have some program created that would automatically detect false information. In the end, Facebook decided to outsource the task to third party fact checking companies. Many of which are news publishers themselves.  A year into this attempted solution, and many are protesting this solution. One reason being that these journalist companies are hurting for money, and that the opportunity presented by Facebook would create...

In the movie The Departed, Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio), is part of an undercover operation to infiltrate Frank Costello's (Jack Nicholson) gang. Hoping to get an invite to join the gang, Billy performs a series of crimes to get noticed. These crimes ended him in jail for several months, and he finally got noticed after getting into a brawl with some mafia members. Billy gave the off the appearance of a criminal that could hold his own. He just might be of use to the gang. However, Costello had his suspicions, and suspected that Billy might be a cop. While sitting at a bar, Costello approached Billy to gauge his interest in joining the gang and also test his suspicions. After some words were exchanged, Costello had one of his goons tap him down for any wires, and then him pin down and bash his already broken arm, all while asking if he was a cop. Satisfied with his work, Costello left and Billy's integration into the gang began. As the leader of the gang, Costello wante...

When someone dies, they often distribute what was theirs through a will. The most common possession that is doled out is any money they might have left over, along with any other valuables. With the person dead, there really can't be any quid pro quo going on here, and even if there was, the deceased wouldn't experience any of the economic benefits that might come from it. So why have a will? Why not just invest all the money into a really nice grave stone or plot of land? Perhaps they want their legacy to live on, or maybe they're more altruistic and want to leave the people or causes they care about better off. Maybe they're not a fan of the government, and believe that their money would be better off anywhere other than there. The idea of a will has been around for ages. One of the earlier examples is the middle eastern version called the waqf. By protecting the deceased's wealth from the government and locking it into an investment of their choosing, the needs...