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Remember when contagion was just the ominous title of a 2011 movie dealing with a deadly disease spreading quickly around the globe while healthcare professionals scrambled to find a cure?  The premise was that a previously unseen threat reached a critical level which set off a cascade effect, reaching many facets of life.  Could such an event happen outside of Hollywood?  In sho

Rivers are useful metaphors to use when thinking about an economy.  Don’t take my word for it.  Alan Greenspan, the former Chair of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), used the figure of speech in these remarks to the National Association of Home Builders in early 1995, address

I am thankful for the opportunity to know you.  You allow me to work in a fascinating field during a riveting time in history, and your friendship makes it even more rewarding.  I wish you a meaningful Thanksgiving.  We all have plenty for which to be thankful. ~Christopher Cox

It’s not very often Atlas gets to reference a BuzzFeed.com article in our morning note, but we’ll take advantage of today’s opportunity.  Sequels are often not as good as the original.  Take this list which tallies 21 of the worst movies sequels in movie sequel history.  That’s

Econometrics is a study of economic systems using statistical methods. Bored yet?  It uses mathematical models to describe the behavior of an economy.  Most of the time a system behaves in some sort of trending pattern.  Every once in a while, however, there is sufficient change in the pattern which gets described as a structural break.

Chemistry is a subject I should have taken more seriously.  I have one class in the eleventh grade under my belt.  Now that chemistry is making its way into more economic subjects as the globe fights off a pandemic and climate change, it might need to be added to Atlas’ knowledge set.   Last Friday we published this note on sand, and now we have another which tangentia

Supplying beaches with sand is ill-advised.  For one thing, it is really tough to get out of the car’s carpet.  And have you seen gas prices?  At these levels, the last thing you need is extra weight forcing you to use more petrol as you motor toward the water.  But these are strange times.  We’re still emerging from the pandemic-related economic shutdown wh

Pendulums are simple mechanical objects.  They are made of just three parts: a pivot, a rod, and a bob at the end of the rod.

Kermit the Frog told us decades ago that it wasn’t easy being green.  We’re only now starting to understand.  Coal is thought to have first been used for heat in Northern China 4,000 years ago.  This special rock could burn like a log, providing warmth in a cold part of the globe and likely the first time humans used fossil fuel.  Fast forward through various ind

Holes can crop up anywhere.  There’s always one on a perfectly quaffed putting green.  Although I’ve never see it, there is supposed to be a big one in the middle of the Milky Way Galaxy.  Analysts on Saturday and Sunday afternoons might comment on one which opens up when a blocking scheme is particularly effective during football season.  And every once in a whi