GOPO PROJECT RUBRIC

CLICK HERE FOR RUBRIC ON 2nd AMENDMENT PROJECT

HOMER SIMPSON AND BUSINESS

A little microecon for your day. Profit maximizing firms at their finest. Click on Homer.

The Ultimate Brain Teaser for EXTRA WANDZIS!!!!!!!!

Click on Einstein to download it. You need to show your work.

To Monopolize or Get Up In Their Business?

RESPOND TO THE FOLLOWING BY CLICKING ON THE COMMENTS LINK BELOW AND LEAVING YOUR NAME AND THOUGHTS. EXTRA WANDZIS!!!!!!!!!!

THE BIG QUESTION(S) IS WHETHER OR NOT THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD BECOME INVOLVED IN THE FIRST PLACE? IS IT THE FAULT OF A COMPANY THAT THEY ARE BETTER THAN SOMEONE ELSE? ISN’T THIS THE POINT OF A MARKET-BASED ECONOMY?

GOPO AND CONGRESS

Use the following links for Thursday's Activities
1) Watch the following video. Try and get a feel for the process of bill to law. What are the steps? Who has to approve of it?
I'm Just a Bill
2) If that does not work for you CLICK HERE for an image of it.
3) Now go to the following link Bill of Rights Games do the crossword, quote match, and quiz
4) Finally go to Bill of Rights News find an article that looks interesting to you, read it, and talk to Wandzi about it or respond by clicking on the "COMMENT" section below.

EXTRA COPIES

GOPO UNIT 2 POSSIBLE ESSAYS
1) Why does our government have checks and balances of powers written into the Constitution? For each branch, provide one check they put on another branch (so 3 checks total)

2) What branch of the federal government does the necessary and proper clause apply to? What power does this give them? Why is this so important?

3) The Supreme Court has very few checks or requirements on it. Why was this branch designed this way? Is this a good or a bad thing? Why?

4) List six steps, in order, of a bill becoming a law.

HOT SHOT BUSINESS LINK

CLICK ON THE IMAGE ABOVE TO GAIN ACCESS TO THE SITE. PLAY THE GAME AND ANSWER THE QUESTIONS BELOW.
1) What challenges did you face as an entrepreneur in this game?


2) What allowed you to figure things out?


3) What were the keys to being successful?


4) What does it take to start your own business (capital investment, resources, etc)?


5) Is starting your own business a worthwhile investment of time, money, energy? Why?

The battle to take down Google

An interesting article on companies that are trying to compete with the massive search engine.

It's the economy stupid!

Found this article that I thought you would all find interesting. Well it is more of an image than article, but it summarizes a lot of "STUFF"

NAKED ECONOMICS DUE DATES

THESE ARE THE DUE DATES FOR THE VARIOUS CHAPTERS OF NAKED ECONOMICS By Charles Wheelan.
For each chapter, there is a one page reaction expected. These should be your own thoughts on each section of reading. For some chapters there are guided questions given, we will discuss some in class, others we won't. Each reaction paper will be 25 points.
CHAPTER 1/6- The power of Markets DUE: 2/18
chp1- how do markets work? who feeds Paris? Why is that an important question? what is economics based on? what are the key ideas of economics?
chp 6- why is the idea of human capital so important?
CHAPTER 2- Incentives Matter DUE: : 3/3
Why DO incentives matter in economics? What are some of the more interesting examples that Wheelan gives from the book? How about examples from your life?
CHAPTER 7- Financial Markets/5- Economics of Information DUE: 3/12
You do not necessarily need to read these in order. Two individual chapters over stuff we have already covered.
Chp 7 Questions: What are the keys to making money in the markets? How does this compare to what we talked about in our stock unit? If you want to challenge yourself, discuss the efficiency of markets theory.
Chp 5 Questions: No real questions. This is a shorter chapter. But what did you find interesting? Has the idea of the "ECONOMICS OF INFORMATION" ever applied to you?

CHAPTER 3/4- Government DUE: 3/30
Chapter 3-Government and the Economy
-At Delbarton, describe a positive or negative externality. (p.49)
o Create an incentive structure to encourage/discourage this behavior that raises/lowers the cost of behavior to better reflect its true social cost.
* On page 56, Mr. Wheelan describes government's institutions that "form the tracks on which capitalism runs."
o Name 5 of these institutions and describe their role in facilitating capitalist rules.

Chapter 4-Government and the Economy II
* If government, through tax initiatives could encourage certain spending in the economy, what kind of spending might they encourage? (p.75)
*why are government monopolies bad?
*why is political (instead of private) allocation of resources a bad thing?
*Government regulation, good or bad? Why?

CHAPTER 10- Federal Reserve DUE: 4/9
Hmm, this is a complicated topic. It is something you have heard of, but definitely not studied in depth. SO, here are some possible topics/questions to consider:

• What is the federal reserve?
• How does easy money policy cause inflation?
• What are some of the policy tools the Fed uses?
• Why is it hard to make monetary policy decisions?
• Why on earth does it make political sense to allow inflation?
• What other questions do you have about monetary policy?
  

CHAPTER 9/11- Trade and Systems DUE: 5/1 2 page minimum
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:
Chapter 9- A good opportunity to review some ideas from Unit 1 on trade. Abs v comp advantage, why people trade.

• Respond to any one of Wheelan's comments on trade (these are the section headings in bold, italics). You can talk about ideas you agree with, disagree with. Points you found interesting, or points that you learned from.

Chapter 11- The economics of "poor" nations.

• Based on the information in this chapter, what are some of the key things that so called third world countries need to look out for or keep in mind? Why? What examples do we have in the world today?

EPILOGUE/WRAP-UP

• Seven questions Dr. Wheelan talks about. What are the four best ones? Why?
  
• What further questions do you have for Wheelan?
  

A (RELATIVELY) SIMPLE EXPLANATION OF THE CREDIT CRISIS

CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO!!!!!



On a totally unrelated note, here is a link to the 50 best websites of 2008. Be careful, you will waste time on this.

System of an ECON, which market system is the best?

REGULAR ECONOMICS, here is an opportunity to earn some extra Wandzis. Tell me what you think is the best system of economics that we talked about this week and why. Make sure your name is attached to your message. The more thoughtful you are the more you get paid.


OR........

IS AMERICA ACTUALLY #1? Why or why not?

GoPo Government System Links

LINK #1

LINK #2

AP MACRO LINKS

Don't worry, have confidence and you will be fine, hopefully. ; )



REFFonomics. Very solid source

WIKINOMICS

ABOUT.com's macro text book

WELCOME TO MACRO

A couple of things I want you to try today.
#1 Attempt to download the readings. Let me know in class if it does not work.
Reading 1
Reading 2


Also respond to the article below regarding the development of "efficient" cars. Do you agree/disagree? Is it worth it? Respond by clicking on the comments link at the end of this reading. Hit the radio button for name/URL, enter your name, and then place your comments above.
Here is a problem for your students: Where is the most energy efficiency gained? Redesigning a car that got 40 mpg so it now gets 80 mpg, OR getting a vehicle that was at 10 mpg to get 15 mpg?

This is pertinent because we are head over heels in love with the Prius, a vehicle that is sold to people who would have been driving a car like mine (Saturn with 40+ mpg highway). That Toyota company should be bailed out by the Japanese government. And GM should be allowed to burn because they have made such horrible vehicles. And we environmentalists scoff at the improvements made by US engineers at GM and Ford, where their big trucks and SUVs have been turned into hybrids boosting their mpg by what seems paltry amounts, 12 mpg to 16 mpg.

Per 10,000 miles driven, a car getting 40 mpg uses 250 gallons, improving that to 80 reduces gasoline consumption to 125 gallons saving 125 gallons. A vehicle getting 10 mpg uses 1000 gallons per 10,000 miles driven. Improving that to 15 mpg takes consumption to 667 gallons, a reduction of 333 gallons. More than twice the savings of the previous example.

Lesson learned? The Prius doesn't do too much for our energy reduction plans. Keep in mind that the driver of a 10 mpg vehicle will not switch to one that gets 40 or 80.

Second environmental lesson. How much energy does it take to make a Prius? I have a simple process for calculating this. If a 51 mpg Prius costs $24,000, then there is $24,000 worth of energy in it. This conversion factor works for most normal goods. It doesn't apply to a Coach purse (I am embarrassed to say I know what they are). A Nissan Versa can be had for $10,000. The Versa should get about 33 or 35 mpg with a standard transmission. How many miles would you have to drive the Prius to reduce energy consumption by $14,000? Hmmm? Partly depends on miles driven per year and interest rates ( a discounting/net present value problem, and gasoline prices.)

GoPo civil rights research links

Below you will find some links to help you out. You can thank me later.

African Americans
Native Americans1
Native Americans2
Native Americans3
Women1
Women2

Click Here For Images that are historical in nature.

Click Here to Get the Code to change your background color

"I MAY NOT APPROVE OF WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY, BUT I WILL DEFEND TO MY DEATH YOUR RIGHT TO SAY IT"
What do you think the author of this quote meant by this? How does this apply to the First Amendment? Do you agree with the statement? Should there be limits to what people can say? Why?

To respond to this click on the Comments link below. Click on the button that says NAME/URL, enter your comments in the top box and name in the name box.

The Sky is Falling, The Sky is Falling

With the economic downturn, life has been crazy in the economy. Here is a little humor to help cope with the negativity that is all over the place. If you have questions, let me know.

Another weird thing in society

I have sometimes wondered about this. . .
http://www.slate.com/id/2183030

Back in the Saddle Again

Starbucks good for the little guy?

So it has been a long time, 3 months and 24 days to be exact, since the last post. Things got busy and I lost some interest. But back at it and we'll see what happens during the Spring term.

Saw this article and found it fascinating. We usually think of corporate giants (Wal-Mart, Scheel's) as being harmful to your local stores. But according to this article, and this instance, the presence of the bigger business was actually profitable to the smaller business. Who says economics isn't fascinating?