Economics
« Previous Entries Next Entries »Spies…Everywhere
Monday, October 6th, 2008I’m talking about my students. I have 45 of them and I’m still learning their names and faces. They see me around campus and know who I am, but I don’t always recognize them. The other day I was tying my shoe in the library and I heard someone say “see you in class” before […]
Nigerian Bailout Satire
Saturday, September 27th, 2008The following letter has been floating around the web. If you have ever received an email from a Nigerian scammer (i.e. if you’ve had email for more than a month) it’s quite funny. Dear American: I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude. […]
Interesting Links
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008I’m preoccupied studying for a Macro test, but here are some interesting stories/sites I have come across recently. Unigo.com: Provides uncensored student reviews of almost every college and university in America. Similar to the Princeton Review, except up-to-date, uncensored, and much more interactive. Prospective college students making a monumental decision are plagued by asymmetric information. […]
A New Take on Bottled Water
Friday, September 19th, 2008Bottled water is immensely popular in the United States. And, while bottle labels display gurgling springs and mountain glaciers, most bottle water comes straight from municipal water sources. The two most popular brands of bottled water, Dasani and Aquafina, (owned by Coke and Pepsi respectively) both get their water right from the tap. Sure, they […]
A Terrible Idea
Friday, September 19th, 2008The SEC bans the short-selling of financial stocks. This is a sad day. Fear and politics triumph over individual freedom and sound policy. Arnold Kling offers a primer on short-selling and why stock prices can fall even if no one is “shorting.” Tyler Cowen notes that investors are still able to short the exchange traded […]
What’s So Special About Email?
Thursday, September 18th, 2008As you problem know, someone recently hacked into one of Sarah Palin’s Yahoo! email accounts and posted a number of her messages on the web. As I suspected, the “hack” was nothing more than resetting the password on Palin’s account by answering her secret question. Apparently, Governor Palin didn’t consider someone might be able to […]
Favorite Lines of the Day
Sunday, September 7th, 2008From Will Wilkinson: That Palin reminded my of my school teachers is a matter of her acquired manner and the assumptions beneath them, a matter of her Upper-Midwest-sounding accent. I’m from a small town. She’s from a small town! And damn straight: people who study at the University of Idaho (which is, in fact, where […]
Are We Running Out of Engineers?
Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008No, we are not. From something I came across today: Concerns about the science and engineering job market are not rooted in a classic labor market shortage. The earnings of scientists and engineers are not rising rapidly, relative to other highly educated workers. There are no massive job vacancies in academe, business, or government. If […]
SEO: A Waste of Resources?
Monday, August 25th, 2008This past weekend I attended a conference on online marketing. My brother sells cb radios online for a living and he invited me along to learn more about e-marketing. It was a lot of fun and really informative. Many of the speakers talked about search engine optimization (SEO). If you’re not already familiar with SEO, […]
Student Blogging: Brilliant or Boring?
Thursday, August 21st, 2008I’ve been preparing for the Intermediate Microeconomics class I will teach this fall. While working on my syllabus, I considered creating a blog and assigning each student in my class to contribute a post. I thought it would be a good way to get students thinking about economics in their everyday lives and would offer […]
« Previous Entries Next Entries »