Friday, July 25, 2014

Something's fishy in Alaska in the canned salmon market. Let's go to the graphs.

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Another day, another easy pickin' economics lesson pulled from the headlines. "Alaska Governor asks the Federal Government to buy...

"I, Chocolate". Why is chocolate so cheap when SO MANY people have to get paid to get it to us?

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I cannot answer that question. No one can (we can only suppose).  It is part of the miracle that is markets operating in as free an environm...
Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Substitute versus Substitution Effect. Only one word difference but the difference is BIG.

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One of the more difficult things to teach to students is the difference between a Substitute (good or service) and the Substitution Effect ...

Nice article: A simple technology allows farmers to become Price Makers, not Price Takers

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In AP Microeconomics we have a unit on the market structure "Perfect Competition".  One of the main characteristics of a firm that...
Wednesday, July 16, 2014

I visited the "Shawshank Redemption" Prison this week and came away with this observation (why, yes, of course it involves economics)

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I visited the prison that was used as the backdrop for the GREAT movie "Shawshank Redemption" .  It is located in Mansfield...
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Friday, July 11, 2014

LeBron, Johnny and the Republican nominee walk into a bar in Cleveland....

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After the Republican Convention in 2015, the Republican nominee, Johnny Manzeil and Lebron James walk into a bar in Cleveland. Johnny give...
Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Nice map showing the uneven job recovery in the US.

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The New York Times has a lengthy article on the economic recovery from 2007 to 2013 with a focus on the post-recession state of the economy....
Sunday, June 22, 2014

Hammer and nails. Cheese and Beer. Regulatory over-reach or Public Safety?

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Recently in a speech at West Point President Obama used this phrase in referencing Iraq/US foreign policy: "Just because we have the ...
Friday, June 20, 2014

Chased something down a rabbit hole today.

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Chased something down a rabbit hole today. I tried to examine the budget of the Federal Highway Trust Fund and the Federal Highway Adminis...
Thursday, June 19, 2014

Ever wonder how farmers get paid for not planting crops? Here is my explanation as it pertains to the new farm bill. Enlightening...

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I have been semi-immersing myself in learning about the new Farm Bill that was recently passed and signed into law that will dictate US farm...
Wednesday, June 18, 2014

How many football fields worth of corn did we use everyday last week to produce the surge in ethanol production? We're gonna need a bigger stadium...

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Saw this and of course had to do some calculating.  You know how much hatin' I do on ethanol. U.S. ethanol output surges to record hig...

Nice comparison of National GDP to Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA's). Terrific learning tool for students.

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Here is another way to quantify the size of the US economy (From US Mayors.org via CityLab) . Economies are measured using Gross Domestic ...
Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Having fun with the CPI. I show how you can read this report quickly and actually get something out of it!

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Looking at a government report can be overwhelming.  SO MANY numbers and categories!  In this blog posting I would like to offer a simple wa...
Monday, June 16, 2014

Having fun with data. The change in hospitals and hospital beds since 1975 perplexes me. Explain to me what is going on.

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In 1975 there were 7,156 hospitals (Federal and Non-Federal--which would be State, Local and Private) in the US.  In 2011 there were 5,747. ...

China Cuts "Required Reserve Ratio" to stimulate lending and Investment. What does that mean exactly?

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One of the tools modern Central Banks around the world have to affect money supply, hence interest rates that money is saved or borrow at, i...
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