Economics

In the 1970s, the U.S. government mandated new safety features in cars: seatbelts, airbags, reinforced frames, and improved braking systems. The goal was simple: reduce traffic fatalities. Economist Sam Peltzman studied what actually happened. His findings were shocking: while driver deaths stayed roughly the same, pedestrian and cyclist deaths increased. Why? Because drivers felt safer-so they drove more recklessly. The Paradox The safer people feel, the more risks they take. ...

In the early 1900s, British colonial India faced a venomous problem: too many cobras slithering through the streets of Delhi. The British government, determined to reduce the cobra population, came up with what seemed like a brilliant solution-offer a bounty for every dead cobra brought in. Initially, the program worked. People killed cobras and collected their rewards. The cobra population appeared to decline. Success! Or so they thought. The Twist Enterprising locals quickly realized they could breed cobras specifically to kill them and collect the bounty. Why hunt dangerous snakes in the wild when you could farm them at home? ...

In February 1637, the Dutch economy experienced one of the most bizarre financial collapses in history. The cause? Flower bulbs. Not gold. Not land. Not ships or spices or any of the valuable commodities that drove the Dutch Golden Age. Tulip bulbs. At the peak, a single rare tulip bulb sold for 10 times the annual income of a skilled craftsman. One bulb-“Semper Augustus”-was worth more than a luxury canal house in Amsterdam. ...