Justin Wolfers

Economist Justin Wolfers, writing under the Platypus Economics banner, explores how ordinary consumers' financial missteps, from high fees to poor investing choices, can enrich banks, brokers and other market players. The piece argues that avoiding common money mistakes is a way of keeping more of your own wealth. Readers are engaging with the question of how much their avoidable losses cost them over time.

Economist Justin Wolfers is commenting on a two-percent faculty pay raise announced during an inflationary period, calling it an example of money illusion. He notes nobody pointed out the raise actually amounts to a cut in real wages, weakening purchasing power, admitting he did not speak up either. The anecdote is being shared as a lesson in how nominal raises can mask real losses.