A good article on the reasons to support and to oppose free trade

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2016-01-26/free-trade-with-china-wasn-t-such-a-great-idea

Good video on why standards of living grow rapidly in some countries and slowly in others

http://mruniversity.us10.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=04a951a4045e64f9ee2a762fd&id=e3632f20ad&e=8886654bda

Optional material for L12b

1. This blog has examples of low rents paid for some apartments in NYC.
2. This paper reports vacancy rates for apartments in NYC.
3. This paper reports that the vacancy rates for apartments in NYC is lower than the national average.

More optional material for L09

1. This story from Planet Money illustrates supply and demand at work. It shows how the price of a ride on Uber increases during a snowstorm.
2. Read the article linked from this post: Pig market.  It discusses the effects of a virus that is killing young pigs and lower grain prices on the price of pork.
3. This article reports that the price of tickets to the Super Bowl is falling. The forecast today, 1 week out, is for temperatures between 35 and 30 with a 20% chance of precipitation. Perhaps that forecast makes watching the game (and the commercials) in the comfort of your home on your new big TV look better and better.
4. This article in the WSJ reports that propane prices rose as temperatures fell. It is a good introduction to supply and demand. It links higher prices to higher demand, mentions possible shortages, and has at least one example of a reduction in the quantity demanded.
5. This video shows how changes in demand affect the price of Hula Hoops.

Optional material for L09

1. Foodie on Equilibrium. It is a clear exposition of demand, supply, and equilibrium.
2. 1funkyteacher on demand and supply, and equilibrium. It uses auction for cows in an excellent illustrations of demand, supply, and equilibrium.
3. 1funkyteacher on changes in equilibrium. It discusses the market for natural gas and shows that price increases as supply decreases and demand increases. It also discusses why “rigging” the market may be difficult and how suppliers did so in the 2000s.
4. The Economic Detective’s video on supply and demand. This is a clear exposition of demand, supply, and equilibrium.
5. This story from from Planet Money illustrates what happens when prices do not adjust to shortages. It describes the backlog (backlog=shortage) of packages at UPS and FedEx during the Christmas season. “Surge” pricing could have eliminated the backlog; the backlog occurred because the quantity demanded exceeded the quantity supplied.
6. In this essay, Gary Becker and Julio Elias estimate that the shortage of kidneys would disappear if the price increased to something between $15K and $30K. About 4,000 people a year in the US die while waiting for a kidney transplant and another 1,200 are removed from the waiting list because they become too sick for a successful transplant. See also Becker,  Gary S. and Julio Jorge Elías (2007), “Introducing Incentives in the Market for Live and Cadaveric Organ Donations,” The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 21, No. 3 (Summer, 2007), pp. 3-24.

Optional material for Choice

1. Watch this clip.  (The instructor predicts that you will laugh.) Is the monkey that rejects cucumber rational?
2. Watch this clip. It shows a consumer considering whether to pay a higher price to buy American. The marginal benefit is obtaining a US-made product instead of one made in India. The marginal cost is $212. It is a good example of making a decision by comparing the benefit and cost.
3. Watch the 60-second lesson beginning @ 5:30 to learn about Rational Choice Theory
4. Watch this humorous clip from Jerry McGuire. What motivates the football player?
5. Watch this clip from the Stand Up Economist @ 2:35. It mocks the principle that people are rational.

Optional material for L03

1. Watch the first 60-second lesson: The Invisible Hand
2. Watch Kahn on Adam Smith @ 0:00-4:30.
3. Watch this clip from Home Town Story @ 37:00. A businessman states that he is interested in profit. He goes on to discuss that customers also seek profit (economists call this second profit consumers surplus) and that the mutually attainment of profit leads to good results.
4. Read this post to learn read how consumers are responding as the price of natural gas falls. Did they need the government to tell them to convert? Why or why not?
5. Watch this clip. It shows that no one knows how to make a pencil and explains why the market is miraculous and government control is inefficient.
6. This story describes aggregating what many people know, each of whom may know much about some things and little about other things, leads to better decisions than trying to have one person or group know everything.
7. Watch Friedman talk about how markets lead to cooperation and harmony to produce a  pencil.

Optional material for L04

1. Read this article (2 pp.) that summarizes recent evidence on the percentage of people in a country that have paid a bribe, a form of corruption.
2. This video describes corruption in Russia associated with the Sochi Olympics. It illustrates one reason why the Heritage Foundation rates the level of economic freedom in Russia as "Mostly Unfree."
3. This chart reports statistics on the ease of starting a business in countries. Ease of starting a business is one indicator that the economy relies heavily on markets.
4. Watch this video for a short account on Puritans in New England. It has great quotes from Governor Bradford about the problems with the communal system.

Optional material for L07

1. Foodie on Demand. This is an excellent slideshow.
2. Watch this clip from Confessions of a Shopaholic. It illustrates well how low prices affect the quantity demanded.
3. Read this post to learn how consumers are responding as the price of natural gas falls.
4. Read this article and this article to learn how consumers are responding as the price of cigarettes increases.
5. This story describes what economists call diminishing marginal utility and a reason that price must fall in order to induce an individual consumer to buy more.
6. This article from the WSJ describes some of the effects of subsidizing gasoline in Venezuela. An interesting point is that folks there use 7 times as much gasoline as neighbors in Columbia.

Optional material for L06

1. Watch this video account of protests over the 1999 WTO meetings in Seattle (7:44). It is the first of a three part series.
2. This report makes the case for free trade and addresses some objections commonly made by critics of free trade.
3. This report makes the case against free trade.
4. This opinion argues that “Democrats want trade, and we want more of it. But like the majority of Americans, we want fair trade, not trade agreements that shutter American manufacturing facilities and ship jobs overseas.”
5. This clip from the Stand Up Economist beginning @ 4:00.
6. this 60-second adventure in economics beginning @ 3:23.

Putting a price on carbon reduces carbon emissions

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/19/opinion/proof-that-a-price-on-carbon-works.html?ref=opinion&_r=0

What happens to price on the black market when the government closes the white market?

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-35325840

Want to be stinking rich

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014/09/29/lifetime_earnings_by_college_major_why_economics_grads_make_bank.html

Pollution in China

http://priceonomics.com/why-is-the-pollution-so-bad-in-beijing/

Why haven't the supermines shut down?

Supermines Add to Glut of Metals

by: John W. Miller
Jan 05, 2015
Click here to view the full article on WSJ.com

TOPICS: Production, Supply and Demand

SUMMARY: Giant mines, begun when prices were high, are adding to the oversupply of copper, iron ore and other metals, compounding the woes of the depressed mining sector.

CLASSROOM APPLICATION: With an increase in the supply of copper due to the startup of new supermines, prices of metals and iron ore have declined. As a result, mining companies have not shut down mines, but rather have kept them operating and reduced labor inputs. The article notes that while profit margins are declining, prices continue to be above shut-down prices. "The mine's huge scale keeps its operating costs down, at under $1.50 per pound. That means even with copper prices now just above $2 a pound, a six-year low, it will continue to make money on an operational basis."

QUESTIONS: 
1. (Introductory) What is the effect of the opening of supermines on the prices of metals and iron ore?

2. (Advanced) What is the effect of depressed metals and iron ore prices on the profit margins of mining companies? Are the companies currently losing money? If so, then why are the mining companies continuing to operate?

3. (Advanced) The article states: "The big mines cost so much to build and extract minerals so efficiently that mothballing them is unthinkable-running them generates cash to pay down debts, and huge mines are expensive to simply maintain while idle." Is "the big mines cost so much to build" a good rationale for not shutting them down in the short run? Discuss the effect of fixed costs on operating decisions.

Reviewed By: James Dearden, Lehigh University