NOLO Law Books Are Great Legal Overviews

NOLO Law Books are great overviews of topics like divorce, property rights, tenants rights environmental law and more. They give you a basic understanding of the area you're researching, crucial cases, and what to expect in court.

There are two different links in the catalog.

One section is here.
The other section is here.

Offbeat Subject Headings for Marketing or Advertising

Ah, here's some cool subject headings for the marketers and advertisers:

Influence, Social Influence, and Persuasion. These are interesting - and dark - books about how humans think and are influenced by others.

Many of these books are written with marketing and consumer persuasion in mind....

Hey, there's a whole movie about this stuff called The Joneses. Funny premise: a family moves into a high end subdivision and starts trying to convince the neighbors to buy certain products...

Public Speaking/Presentation Books

List of public speaking and presentation books

Here's some books that cover how to be an effective public speaker and how to do successful business presentations. Learn speaking styles, visual aids, eye contact, and  many more ideas!

Wizards of the Coast in Austin

I'm not totally clear on what Wizards of the Coast is, it has something to do with role playing and cards and stuff.

Anyway, they're opening a studio in Austin, good reminder that the area is full of creative fun businesses you can get involved in!

Article here.

The Case of Brazilian Inflation: Perception Problem or Stealth Devaluation?

For decades, Brazil suffered from inflation. So much so, that public confidence in the currency (the cruzeiro) suffered. Prices continually rose from week to week.

So Brazil printed a new currency that always stayed at a fixed rate: The Unit of Real Value. (By the way, this is why the Brazilian currency is called a real).

If eggs cost 20 cruzeiros, they cost 2 URVs. If eggs cost 40 cruzeiros next, they still cost 2 URVs. Eventually, people started using the Real and inflation abated.

Or so the story goes.

Here's a good basic summary of the situation from NPR
A more detailed academic version is here.

Being a cynical sort, I ask myself if this wasn't a stealth devaluation of the currency? Goes beyond an innocous perception problem. Think about that.