46 Solves & 98 Attempts
The obvious first step is to find the immediate answers to each of these clues. Several clues can be solved without any specialist knowledge. Along the way, teams should hopefully realise that the answers are all terms used in economics, but defined in unorthodox ways. That makes it easier to complete the list.
Here are the clues, with the relevant unorthodox definitions highlighted, and the answers.
| Clue | Answer |
|---|---|
| John is the only one who makes fauna-based high-proof liquors such as Vicuna Vodka and Wallaby Whiskey, otherwise known as: | animal spirits |
| The shipping industry is holding steady despite the disappearance of ships' total carrying capacity, a mysterious phenomenon known as: | deadweight loss |
| Spontaneous optimism has led to more people purchasing trampolines and rubber bands, meaning that retail outlets are seeing a rise in: | elastic demand |
| Now that she has a prestigious degree which indicates her abilities, she has come to an inner balance and is in a state of emotional: | equilibrium |
| Having failed repeatedly to get a job, Kenneth has a hypothesis that it simply cannot be achieved. He calls this his: | impossibility theorem |
| Stocks have been shifting strangely, as if moved by some unseen puppeteer or: | invisible hand |
| George cannot raise the price of his citrus fruits without losing customers. He sells the C. limon Osbeck variety, commonly known as: | lemons |
| The boardgame tournament organisers wanted to offer more places -- there were plenty of would-be entrants -- but could not do so because of regulations. This was a shame given the popularity of that Parker Brothers property-based classic: | monopoly |
| In recognition of how individual self-interested action can end up benefiting society, there is a new D&D alignment to describe an ordinary, regular person who nonetheless is a positive force: | normal good |
| As incomes rise, people buy more tours that take them to arbitrary places on foot, a pastime known as the: | random walk |
| Because the leading firm's prices are high, even this small firm can charge a lot for its courses on what to do with flags -- from hoisting, i.e. flying them, to semaphore, i.e.: | signalling |
| Overfishing does not account for the price of each shipwreck, also known as a boat's: | sunk cost |
| The UK Parliament's lower House dissolved into devastating violence after realising voters' preferences could not be aggregated, in a dramatic play entitled: | tragedy of the commons |
| Following the 'purse reaction' and 'hat consequence', we now see the phenomenon of wariness of poor-quality parasols causing overall sunshade standards to fall, in what has been deemed the: | umbrella effect |
| Deciding to disregard all the past effort he put into his career, he quit and is now searching for a new job. His state is known as: | unemployment |
The answers are given in alphabetical order, suggesting that re-ordering is required. The clues contain a lot of apparently unused information. And we haven’t looked at the standard meanings of these economic terms.
The next step is to realise that each clue also makes reference to another of these terms -- but in its actual economic meaning. Here’s the list again, this time with each economics-relevant bit highlighted, and the corresponding terms.
| Clue | Answer |
|---|---|
| John is the only one who makes fauna-based high-proof liquors such as Vicuna Vodka and Wallaby Whiskey, otherwise known as: | monopoly |
| The shipping industry is holding steady despite the disappearance of ships' total carrying capacity, a mysterious phenomenon known as: | equilibrium |
| Spontaneous optimism has led to more people purchasing trampolines and rubber bands, meaning that retail outlets are seeing a rise in: | animal spirits |
| Now that she has a prestigious degree which indicates her abilities, she has come to an inner balance and is in a state of emotional: | signalling |
| Having failed repeatedly to get a job, Kenneth has a hypothesis that it simply cannot be achieved. He calls this his: | unemployment |
| Stocks have been shifting strangely, as if moved by some unseen puppeteer or: | random walk |
| George cannot raise the price of his citrus fruits without losing customers. He sells the C. limon Osbeck variety, commonly known as: | elastic demand |
| The boardgame tournament organisers wanted to offer more places -- there were plenty of would-be entrants -- but could not do so because of regulations. This was a shame given the popularity of that Parker Brothers property-based classic: | deadweight loss |
| In recognition of how individual self-interested action can end up benefiting society, there is a new D&D alignment to describe an ordinary, regular person who nonetheless is a positive force: | invisible hand |
| As incomes rise, people buy more tours that take them to arbitrary places on foot, a pastime known as the: | normal good |
| Because the leading firm's prices are high, even this small firm can charge a lot for its courses on what to do with flags -- from hoisting, i.e. flying them, to semaphore, i.e.: | umbrella effect |
| Overfishing does not account for the price of each shipwreck, also known as a boat's: | tragedy of the commons |
| The UK Parliament's lower House dissolved into devastating violence after realising voters' preferences could not be aggregated, in a dramatic play entitled: | impossibility theorem |
| Following the 'purse reaction' and 'hat consequence', we now see the phenomenon of wariness of poor-quality parasols causing overall sunshade standards to fall, in what has been deemed the: | lemons |
| Deciding to disregard all the past effort he put into his career, he quit and is now searching for a new job. His state is known as: | sunk cost |
The initials of the terms spell the cluephrase MEASURED IN UTILS, leading to the answer UTILITY.
Author’s notes
If you’re familiar with economics, it’s fairly easy to skip straight to the endgame of recognising the economics-related situations being described. In that case, the initial clues merely serve as confirmation of the economics terms. It might be easy to overlook ‘overfishing’, for instance, but once you get ‘tragedy of the commons’ via the UK Parliament’s lower house/dramatic play clue, you should be able to match that up to ‘overfishing’.
In an added touch that was more for amusement than helpfulness, the first names used in the clues are those of the economists behind the terms: John Maynard Keynes (animal spirits), Kenneth Arrow (impossibility theorem) and George Akerlof (lemons).