China plans to use cap-and-trade to limit carbon emissions

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/09/24/china-to-limit-greenhouse-gas-emissions-in-cap-and-trade-program.html

Two videos on MR=MC and Perfect Competition

Mr. Clifford on MR=MC for perfect competition
Kahn on MR=MC for perfect comp

Crony capitalism not = the market system

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-12-24/cronyism-causes-the-worst-kind-of-inequality

Neumark on the employment impact of an increase in the minimum wage

http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-evidence-is-piling-up-that-higher-minimum-wages-kill-jobs-1450220824

If a 10% increase in the minimum wage reduces teen-age and low-skill employment by 2%,

1. What is the price elasticity of the demand for labor?
2. What would happen to the unemployment rate for teen-age and low-skill workers when the minimum wage increases from $7.15 to $10.10? Assume that no workers become discouraged and drop out of the labor market?

Do we need death panels?

Scarcity of health care implies rationing of health care. Here are a couple of opinions that discuss the best ways to ration health care.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/17/opinion/health-care-reform-beyond-obamacare.html?smid=tw-share&_r=2

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/22/business/economy/rationing-health-care-more-fairly.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all

Comparative advantage works in microbial economies

The Numbers. Economies of Ail: Bacteria Flourish
by: Jo Craven McGinty
Dec 12, 2015
Click here to view the full article on WSJ.com

TOPICS: Microeconomics

SUMMARY: Columnist Jo Craven McGinty explores how a chance conversation between two former roommates led to a breakthrough in the understanding of how microbial communities interact-and an affirmation of economic theory.

CLASSROOM APPLICATION: Instructors can use the article as an example in a microbial population (or economy) of comparative advantage, and the article's diagram shows a good analogy between countries trading wine and shirts and cells trading metabolites. The article also notes general equilibrium, and it reports on an experiment using microbes to test specialization and gains from trade. "Economists love this kind of study, Colin Camerer, professor of behavioral economics at California Institute of Technology, said, because it shows an economics principle functioning as anticipated in a simple system where economists didn't suspect the rules applied."

QUESTIONS: 
1. (Advanced) The column notes "comparative advantage." Define comparative advantage. Is the trading metabolites among microbes pictured in the column an example of microbes exploiting comparative advantage?

2. (Introductory) The column notes "general equilibrium." Define general equilibrium and explain how it could apply to microbes trading multiple types of metabolites.

3. (Advanced) "In their experiment, the researchers documented a tradeoff between the species' growth and relative abundance in the overall microbial population based on their level of cooperation. The more a community shared, they found, the faster it grew-but the species that shared the most accounted for a smaller fraction of the total population, and eventually the benefit evaporated if the species 'overshared.'" Is it possible that in human economies that oversharing could happen, thereby leading to lower economic growth?

Reviewed By: James Dearden, Lehigh University

Data on CO2 emissions in the US.

https://www.eia.gov/cfapps/ipdbproject/iedindex3.cfm?tid=90&pid=45&aid=8&cid=US,&syid=1980&eyid=2012&unit=MMTCD

How to put teeth into a climate change agreement

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/12/james-hansen-climate-change-paris-talks-fraud

The Maple Syrup Cartel

http://qz.com/570828/canadas-mighty-maple-syrup-cartel-wants-to-put-this-grandmother-in-jail/

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-35028380

Is Finland's approach to reducing poverty better than welfare or minimum wage?

http://managerialecon.blogspot.com/2015/12/why-is-finland-is-giving-every-adult.html

Is Econ 101 wrong?

Here is a nice debate: http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2015/11/debating-introductory-econ.html

Externality at work

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/07/beijing-pollution-red-alert-smog-engulfs-capital

An example of a the difficulty a cartel has in raising price

http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-opec-meeting-idUKKBN0TL0MB20151203