Friday

Bridges are an important part of infrastructure.  They keep commerce humming when barriers need to be crossed.  Such obstacles can be either man-made like trains or natural like rivers.  Metaphoric bridges can also be built to close the gap between two nations, often also resulting in added commerce. 

Atlas thinks a lot about maps and modeling.  These tools allow us all to better understand complex systems without having to have every piece of information; think Alfred Korzybski’s idea that, “the map is not the territory.”  Nevertheless, these maps and models of cities, for instance, help us navigate large and everchanging transportation arteries across the nation

Hurricane Helene is the latest deadly hurricane to hit the US.  It is still relatively early, but the costs are soaring.  So far it has taken over 160 lives.  In addition to the death toll, it will cost billions of dollars to repair cities like Asheville, NC to their prior glory.  So much of this damage was caused by water, a lot of water. 

I’ve reached an age.  If you haven’t you will, and if you have, you’ll know what I’m talking about.  A few days ago, I walked into a restaurant and saw what was probably a middle-school student wearing a band t-shirt from my youth: The Cranberries.  I was immediately hit with the lyrics from their September 1994 (my sophomore year had just started) hit &ld

Growing up there was a guy in the neighborhood who worked in some form of construction.  He would often come home with copper wires, the type used overhead for transmitting electricity.  I was in elementary school, so he never told me why it was in his possession, but he would strip the wire coating off with a large knife in his back yard and recycle the copper.

The scent of a Crayola crayon is as iconic as the vibrant masterpieces they create, hung with care using magnets and refrigerator doors.  Atlas President Emeritus, J R Capps, sent me an article about the colorful sticks, and I could immediately sense that unique smell.  It was like a time machine transported me back to a more carefree age when the biggest concern was staying within th

Last week in this space Atlas noted the dramatic revisions to employment figures originally published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).  Click here to revisit it.

Our nation is in the midst of history.  We are under 80 days from the next election, including that of the future President of the United States.  Campaigns are in full swing, and so is story telling.  History is being told with a bit of revisionist flair, not unlike prior campaigns filled with promises and less-than-accurate recollections of earlier accomplishments.

Purchasing-power parity is like a special calculator that helps economists compare different countries' currencies based on how much stuff you can buy with them.  Imagine you have a $10 bill, and you want to buy some candy. In the United States, that $10 might get you 10 candy bars.

Economic indicators give a sense of an economy’s present state.  But even coincident indicators offer only a model of reality.  Enter forward-looking indicators.  These are measures which have historically given a glimpse into things to come. If you think quantifying the current state of an economy is difficult, predicting its future is much more so.