This blog post is my analysis on the economics podcast “Would You Let a Coin Toss Decide Your Future,” by Katherine Mills. This podcast appeared on the Freakonomics Radio Podcast on January 31, 2013. In the podcast we discuss the options of flipping a coin to determine your future and quitting. Quitting is not something people like to do and want to be known for, but sometimes people just get tired of doing something they no longer love. Freakonomics set up an experiment to flip a coin to determine peoples futures whether to quit or do something else. They are trying to see if the outcome of the coin gives new hope to that person or will they continue to do something they do not like
and be upset.
I think that flipping a coin or playing rock, paper, scissors such as Daniel Harrington tell us is a different way to make decisions rather than sit there and way every outcome of your decision and be stressed, but not on something that will change your life. I understand this might have worked for him, but just flipping a coin and letting your fate rely on heads or tails is crazy. Risk and reward can be different for every decision and getting the wrong side of the coin can hurt your future. In my opinion I would rather weigh my options and go by what i believe is the right choice, not some lucky flip. If i make the wrong decision I could know that it was me that did it and not what could have been if i tossed the coin a little higher.
This blog post is my analysis on the economic podcast “Episode 267: A New Mom and the President of Iceland.” This podcast appeared on the planet money website on February 1, 2013. In 2008 Iceland was hit hard with the recession and suffered a huge financial crisis. Major banks in the country fell and people that invested in places like the UK and the Netherlands were unable to take their money out.
The President of Iceland made a decision to not reimburse the people who invested their money with the banks to lower the losses that Iceland was going through. A vote was set up for the Iceland people to vote "yes" or 'no" on whether or not the investors should receive their money back, and majority voted no.
The British and Dutch were not to happy about this and filed a lawsuit against Iceland for their money back. Luckily Iceland was in favor on the suit and did not have to pay back all the money. I think that this is a really tough situation to be in the middle of, but thats life. The people who invested in these banks could have put their money any where else, but chose here. It is like investing in a stock and it losing money. You know the risks.
I think that flipping a coin or playing rock, paper, scissors such as Daniel Harrington tell us is a different way to make decisions rather than sit there and way every outcome of your decision and be stressed, but not on something that will change your life. I understand this might have worked for him, but just flipping a coin and letting your fate rely on heads or tails is crazy. Risk and reward can be different for every decision and getting the wrong side of the coin can hurt your future. In my opinion I would rather weigh my options and go by what i believe is the right choice, not some lucky flip. If i make the wrong decision I could know that it was me that did it and not what could have been if i tossed the coin a little higher.
