Bikes in the News: Nice Ride MInnesota

Hey readers, my last post was about economics in the news, so today I am posting about bikes in the news.  Today I am going to discuss Minneapolis's Nice Ride Program.  Read the full post to see what I think!

Economics in the News: Economics Behaves Badly?

I've decided to do a series called Economics in the News to keep whoever is reading this blog (probably no one right now) posted on current economic events/thought.  Today's post is responding to the article Economics Behaving Badly by George Loewenstein and Peter Ubel that ran in the New York times on Wednesday.  Read the full post for a summary of this article and my reaction to it.

Brian's Bike is Almost Done

Hello to whoever may be reading this! I know it's been a while since my last post here. To be honest, I have just been lazy. I've been thinking of making a post about the financial reform bill set to pass Congress soon, and also a post about the Save More Tomorrow retirement savings program based on behavioral economics. But both of those require some research on my part that I haven't done yet, so take the jump to check out my work on Brian's bike.

Pictures from Vegas!

Since I haven't done much work on bikes or thinking about economics lately, here are some pictures from my Las Vegas trip!

From left to right that's Billy, me, my grandpa, and my uncle Bill at the famous Las Vegas, Nevada sign.  See the rest after the jump...

Short-term vs. Long-run economics

Almost all popular coverage of the economy is very short-term, and focused on consumer spending. For example, I just went to the New York Times business section and found this article: U.S. Indexes Fall Sharply on Jobs Data. This is a typical economics article in many ways. It is well written, but read my full post to see the problems I have with it.

Behavioral Economics Explains Procrastination!

While trying to get started on this post, I had facebook open in a different tab. I figured a quick look at what my friends were up to couldn't hurt, so I clicked over to facebook. Once there, I saw that someone had posted this link to a video of Christopher Walken answering the census.
Read the full post to see why I was watching Christopher Walken videos instead of writing this post...

First bike project!

Hello and thanks for reading, whoever you may be. I'd like to welcome you to this blog with a post about a project I'm working on.

Just for fun, I've decided to start fixing up bikes for my friends. So, I bought a mountain bike on craigslist for my roommate Brian. Here are some pictures of what it looked like when I got it:







I was still figuring out my camera, so I accidentally have a picture of the house across the street instead of a full view of the bike! Oh well. I don't know if you can really see from these shots, but the bike's tires were worn out, the back brake was rubbing on the rim, the chain was a mess, and the back tire was flat. So I got some new tires on it, replaced the tube in the rear tire, replaced the chain, and cleaned and lubed up all the parts of the drivetrain. I also replaced the cables and cable housing for the brakes and derailleurs. Here's a shot of how the bike looks right now:



Cleaned up nice, no? Well, there is still work to be done. Brian wanted to keep the gears on this bike instead of making it single speed, so I replaced the cable on the front derailleur, but now am not quite sure how to make it work... looks like I might need some time to figure it out. But it runs nicely in one gear, so that' something!

Oh and here's the trash that I threw away:


Thanks for stopping by, and I'll update you soon with another post.