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Why demand for Mason jars surges in times of uncertainty

Dec 7, 2020
Canning food fills a "psychological need to find control wherever you can" during economic downturns, says journalist Jen Doll.
Demand for Mason jars surged in 2020, but this isn’t the first time that’s happened during a period of instability. Above, girls can plums in 1944.
Fox Photos/Getty Images

Misery Index falls

Jan 24, 2012
Americans are far less miserable than we were last summer, according to the Augmented Misery Index.

U.S. Leads the World in GDP, Not in "Human Development"

Nov 2, 2011
When it comes to the sheer size of the economy -- as measured by the Gross Domestic Product -- the United States leads the world. But GDP may not...

Alternative Indicator: The G(raffiti)DP

Jul 20, 2011
The numbers are bad: Unemployment is at 9.2% after rising for three straight months. Goldman Sachs cut its GDP growth forecast from 2% down to 1....

In Egypt, Affordable Housing is the Price of Love

Jun 21, 2011
Think affordable housing is just a matter of number crunching and government regulation? How about sex? OK, so maybe not just "sex," but in Egy...

Et tu, OECD?

May 24, 2011
You would have thought the venerable promoters of the global economy at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development would have been...

Alternative Indicator: Green GDP

Dec 3, 2010
The Green Gross Domestic Product is an economic growth index that quantifies and calculates the environmental consequences of that growth....

For public good, not for profit.

Alternative Indicator: The Big Mac Index

Nov 9, 2010
A Big Mac can do much more than satiate our appetite for burgers that require three pieces of bread: it can give us a lens through which to compa...

Alternative Indicator: The Misery Index

Nov 3, 2010
Want to see just how half-empty your country's economic glass is? It's as simple as calculating the Misery Index....

Alternative Indicator: The Genuine Progress Index

Oct 26, 2010
There's more to evaluating a country's well-being than merely looking at GDP - that's why the non-profit public policy institute Redefining...