Illegal Immigration; Not an Economic Debate

Check out this article by Jason Welker about the Economics of Illegal Immigration. It is a refreshing take on an issue that has gotten a great deal of publicity recently. What are your thoughts after reading the article? Is this different from what you have been hearing from both the Republicans and the Democrats lately? Leave your comments before Sunday at midnight.

Illegal Immigration; not an Economic Debate

AP Micro Review

Go to one of the following:
Mr. Clifford's Microeconomics Videos
AP Microeconomics Powerpoints
AP Microeconomics Lecture Notes

Click on a link from one of these pages. Write a 3-5 sentence summary of the video or powerpoint and then answer the question, "Will this activity be helpful in my preparation for the AP Exam?

Is it time to retire the penny?

Has the venerable $.01 piece outlived its usefulness? Check out the website for some of the arguments in favor of eliminating the penny. What do you think? Also check out this guys hilarious rant against the penny.

The second video is from a guy who loves pennies. Which side are you on? Why?

Taxes

With April 15th occurring this week, it is the perfect time to learn about taxes. The first 39 students to respond to this post will go to this site, http://apps.irs.gov/app/understandingTaxes/student/index.jsp
and first click on the how's of taxes, select the next module that hasn't been covered, and complete the activities in that module. Write a short synopsis of the lesson and how you did on the assessment. Once the how's of taxes modules have been completed (there are 14) then the next student will start on the why's of taxes (there are 25). After all of the modules have been used, the next student will go to the irs.gov website and summarize one of the articles found on this site. Summaries need to be 150-200 words in length. Have fun and learn something about one of the two certainties in life.

Positive and Negative Externalities

Find an article relating to the topics from our current unit. 

• Type the title of the article below with your name next to it.
• Hyperlink the article's title to the URL where it's located on the web.
• Include a one paragraph analysis of how the article results to the current topics.
• (You may not use an artictle that has already been selected by one of your classmates)

Is Paying Kids for Good Grades Wrong?

There have been several experiments by school districts at paying students for attendance, good behavior, and good grades. The most recent attempts in Washington, D.C. and New York City have shown some promising results. Money is a powerful incentive. Click on the link below, read the article and leave your thoughts about "money for grades." Posts should be 50-75 words.

Is Paying Kids for Good Grades Wrong?

Minimum Wage

As this weeks chapter deals with minimum wage the blog will as well. Go to the following website,
Minimum Wage and explore it. Write down at least two interesting pieces of information that you discovered on the website. Don't copy your classmates. Each post must contain two pieces of information that have not been discussed.

Game Theory

We don't spend much time on Game Theory in class, however the definition is:
"Game theory studies interactive decision-making, where the outcome for each participant or "player" depends on the actions of all. If you are a player in such a game, when choosing your course of action or "strategy" you must take into account the choices of others. But in thinking about their choices, you must recognize that they are thinking about yours, and in turn trying to take into account your thinking about their thinking, and so on."

You may have heard of Nash Equilibrium (A Beautiful Mind) where the two players establish the actions that will be in both of their best interests. This is usually explained using the Prisoners Dilemma (see below)

Say Ben and Alice have both been arrested for the same crime and are being held in separate cells. They are questioned by the police and have the following options; confess or stay silent. What should each do?
If both confess they each get 1 year in prison, if both stay silent they get 3 years apiece. If one confesses and the other stays silent, the confessor gets 5 years and the other one goes free. Game theory explains what strategy each player should select to minimize their time in jail.

Click on the link below, watch the video from the British game show "Golden Balls" and answer the 3 questions in your response.
http://welkerswikinomics.com/blog/2012/04/20/golden-balls-game-theory-the-prisoners-dilemma-and-the-cold-rationality-of-human-behavior/

Worldwide News

Go to Welker's Wikinomics Economics Universe feed by following this link.
Browse through the multitude of articles until you find one dealing with market structures (monopolies, oligopolies, monopolistic competition, perfect competition). Go to the article read it, and fill out the following:
Source:
Article Title:
Date:
Market Structure discussed:
2-3 Sentence Synopsis of article:

You may not copy anyone else's article, so get this one done early.

Types of Market Structure

There are 4 basic types of Market Structure:
1. Perfect Competition
2. Monopolistic Competition
3. Oligopoly
4. Monopoly
Select one of the above, give me one fact about the market structure and one example of a modern day business that operates as the structure you select. Don't copy your classmate's ideas.

100 Best Economics Blogs For Students

100 Best Economics Blogs for Students

Click on link above to be taken to list website

Review two blogs from this list of the 100 best blogs for economics students. Make sure they are from different categories, and don't repeat one that someone else has already done. Yes I realize that this means you will have to check the previous posts to see which ones have already been reviewed. The sooner you do this one the easier it will be. Reviews need to include:
1) Content
2) Appearance
3) Ease of Navigation
4) Apparent bias

Once the first 100 are taken click here for secondary list

**Due Sunday before midnight**

Is the death penalty an efficient crime deterrent?

Death Penalty: Pro or Con

Here is another policy debate and another chance for you to think about where you stand on another major issue.
The economic argument in favor of the death penalty is rather simple. Economists assume that individuals weigh the expected costs and benefits when deciding to undertake any activity. Thus, rational individuals considering criminal activities would weigh the expected benefits against the expected cost of the criminal endeavor. The expected cost of any given crime is affected by the probability of being detected, the probability of being convicted given detection, and the expected penalty that results from a conviction. Since the death penalty provides a higher cost than alternative punishments, it is expected to generate a larger deterrent effect, ceteris paribus.
Go to the website and use two sources to justify whether you are for or against the death penalty.

School Vouchers: An Economic Debate

Do School Vouchers Improve the Quality of Education

Follow the link to the article listed above. Read the article and post your thoughts on this issue. Are you for or against school vouchers? Why? Include at least two points from one of the sources listed at the bottom of the article. Be sure to list which source you used. Do not copy the points used by any of your classmates.
Check this website for more resources both pro and con.
http://www.balancedpolitics.org/school_vouchers.htm

Supply and Demand Practice

In your response, select the first unanswered problem from the table. Give your answers to the problem and then leave a problem of your own. The first to respond will answer #2 and leave question #34, the next student to respond will answer #3 and leave #35 and so on.

Market	Event	Would the demand curve or supply curve shift?	Would the curve shift to the right or left?	Determinant Involved
1. wheat	A drought destroys much of the crop.	Supply	Left	Stoner (R) Resources/Raw Materials
2. redwood lumber	Environmentalists urge consumers to boycott redwood products.
3. cigars	A new study shows that smoking cigars results in lots of wrinkles.
4. butter	The price of margarine goes up.
5. paper	The price of wood pulp rises.
6. Hula hoops	Brad Pitt confides to People magazine that "he gets a big kick out of his hula hoop."
7. yachts	The average price of stocks falls by over 20% between now and the end of the year.
8. gasoline	Large sports-utility vehicles (like Suburbans and Expeditions) become more popular.
9. umbrellas	Heavy rain is forecast.
10. tofu	E. Coli bacteria is found in another meat plant.
11. gasoline	Two oil supertankers collide.
12.hamburger	The price of hamburger rises.
13.oranges	There's an early frost which destroys much of the crop.
14. apples	A new pesticide is developed which controls tent caterpillars.
15. grapes	The National Marines Fisheries Service bans pesticide spraying within 1,000 feet of waterways containing coho salmon.
16. wine	The average wage of grape harvesters rises by 10%.
17. U.S. cars	The U.S. imposes a tariff on Japanese car imports.
18. hospital beds	Scientists discover a pill that cures cancer.
19. cement	A 7.9 earthquake hits San Francisco.
20.Video rentals	The price of getting cable TV goes up.
21. windshields	A new law is passed requiring gravel trucks to cover their loads with tarps.
22.Taxi service	Local subway workers go on strike
23.Bike helmets	The price of bicycles goes down
24.melons	The cost of water goes up.
25. Lucernemilk	The price of Safeway milk goes down.
26. jellybeans	The price of jellybeans goes up.
27.Oreo cookies	The price of milk increases.
28.Burger King whoppers	McDonald's lowers the price of Big Macs.
29. Hot dogs	60 Minutes does an expose called "The Truth about Hot Dogs."
30.Hot dog buns	The price of flour rises
31. butter	Mad Cow Disease wipes out a lot of dairy cows.
32. candles	An electric company official announces that a computer bug will likely result in power outages.
33. Cowboy boots	Old Navy launches an ad campaign called "Everyone in cowboy boots."

34. Your entry

Production Possibilities Curve

Click on the title link to find an excellent article on the Production Possibilities Curve and Frontier. The way this weeks blog will work is that I will post a question from the article. The first person to post will answer my question, and then leave a question of their own from the article. The next person to post will answer that question then write one of their own and so on and so on. Question #1 Why do most world religions teach their adherents to have an attitude of gratefulness?
Link to article