June 1, 2017January 1, 2018Alexander the Great, comparison data So, how can we compare today’s wages with 100 years or 2,300 years ago? The following numbers are based on purchasing power parity, which is a tool economists use to compare countries across currencies and across […]
June 1, 2017June 15, 2017Alexander the Great, comparison of living standards How much has our economic wellbeing improved from that our of distant ancestors? A view of economic progress. Ponder the productivity improvement and resulting increase in wealth to go from this: To this: The overall […]
June 1, 2017June 15, 2017comparison of living standards, Other eras Are you richer today than John D. Rockefeller was in 1916? The answer is, um, yes. I suggest you are in fact richer today than John Rockefeller was 100 years ago. If it were possible for Prof. Don […]
June 1, 2017June 15, 2017Alexander the Great Value of 1 ancient Greek drachma and 1 Athenian Talent Image: Courtesy of Flickr by Carole Raddato If you are curious and want to follow along, I’ll be spending a bit of […]
June 1, 2017June 15, 2017Alexander the Great Ancient finances, the Alexander the Great chapter Image: Flickr by Carole Raddato The Wall Street Journal has a delightful review by James Romm: Conqueror and Squanderer. The review is […]
June 1, 2017June 15, 2017Roman Empire More data points on pay for Roman Legionnaires Got interested again in how much a Roman soldier was paid. Browsed Wikipedia and found a few more reference points. One of […]
June 1, 2017June 19, 2017Roman Empire Travel time and cost in the Roman Empire Stanford has an awesome site that shows time and cost to travel in the Roman Empire. You can find it at ORBIS – […]
June 1, 2017June 15, 2017Roman Empire Roman denarius Let’s take a look at the Roman Denarius. I’ve taken an interest in ancient currency and monetary issues lately, particularly as it […]
June 1, 2017June 15, 2017Other eras A long time ago, accounting supervisors really were slave drivers. You think you have a rough boss…. Jacob Soll explains in his book, The Reckoning: Financial Accountability and the Rise and Fall […]
June 1, 2017June 15, 2017Roman Empire More ideas on the wealth in the Roman treasury back in 49 B.C. A while back I discussed a comment I read saying that when Caesar crossed the Rubicon, the Roman treasury held 17,410 pounds […]