Personal Finance Decathlon at the Fed

Congrats to the AHS Personal Finance Decathlon team who placed 3rd out of 86 teams in the state. A job well done, and a very cool experience.

Photo Below: The team is in their pre-game meeting discussing strategy.

Photo Below: Team hard at work, discussing how the other team knows all the answers. And showing off their cool shirts.
Photo Below: Eating a great lunch in the Official Fed dining room. The team also had the pleasure of dining with Mr. Roger Sit, who manages over $8 billion dollars and is CEO of Sit Investments (one of the sponsors of the Personal Finance Decathlon.) To read the fascinating story of his father, Eugene, who fled communist China with nothing, read here.
Peace out, Fed.

AP Macro Foreign Exchange Market Activity

AP Macro Students:

Please read the following on reffonomics here and answer the following questions on the reading here about the FOREX Market.

When finished please review the following:

1. Loanable Funds Graph here.

2. Phillips Curve here.

3 The Money Market Graph here.

Due Friday, April 29th.

$5,000 an Hour For a Video Chat. Not Bad Work if You Can Get It

... and the Nobel Prize in Economics doesn't hurt your earnings potential as well. Expertinsight.com is a new website where economists and others charge money for an hour of internet chat.

Some of the fees for a one-hour video chat are:

Nobel economist Gary Becker: $5,000
Economist Steven Levitt (of Freakonomics fame): $3,000
Author Steven Dubner: $3,000
Political blogger Nate Silver: $1,000
Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron: $400

As Bloomberg reports:

"The site’s roster blends the interests and contacts of Adams, a top poker professional who taught undergraduates in Harvard’s Department of Economics for the past eight years. Adams, the primary research assistant for Michael Lewis’s book “The Big Short,” began giving one-to-one poker lessons over the video-chat service Skype in March 2010, charging $300-$400 per hour.

“I was amazed at how easy it was to drum up business,” Adams, a regular in some of the world’s biggest cash poker games, said in a telephone interview. “I realized that one-to- one teaching was a great opportunity to monetize content. What you’re doing is searching the world for that small slice of people, maybe 15 to 30, who are willing to pay a high price for your content.”

Photo Left: expertinsight.com founder Brandon Adams.

Econ Challenge!

PREZI Project

Here is a copy of your state economy presentation, using prezi. Below find an example of a prezi by yours truly.

Additional Sources for Fed Essay Contest

Education Issues:

James J. Heckman, Noble prize winning economist from U. of Chicago: The declining American high school graduation rate: Evidence, sources, and consequences.

GREAT Powerpoint HERE by Heckman. Here is Heckman on Job Creation.

Here is former Mpls Fed President Art Rolnick on the importance of early education.

Debt, Deficits, and Uncertainty Harm Economic Growth:

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke here.

More here, and here. Robert Samuelson talks about uncertainty hindering economic growth here. More about Keynesian Policy, and huge deficits here.

Debt is now at a level where economic growth and job creation are affected, here.

Government Spending and job creation here.

All this debt crowds-out private investment. Here is the definition of the crowding-out effect.

High Corporate Tax Rates in US decrease Economic Growth and Job Creation:

The US has one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world. Read how this hinders job creation here. More here and here. And here is how high tax rates reduce incentives. Here is the 3M CEO who is very critical of regulation hurting job growth. And read here, the US will have the highest corporate taxes in the world!

Problems Facing the Long-Term Unemployed:

From ABC News here.

Are there Benefits to Being Unemployed? Do unemployment benefits increase unemployment?

Read here. Obama economist Larry Summers here, on how unemployment insurance reduces the incentives to search for jobs.

Not in the Labor Force? Good article on discouraged workers here.

And don't forget that 60 Minutes Video, previously viewed in class.

Key Instructions: "First, you must be clear about the need for intervention. If you argue that the government should play a role, you must explain why. Further, you need to consider the benefits of government policies as well as their costs, and your account of the costs should consider possible unintended consequences. If you want to argue that the government should take a more hands-off approach, you need to explain why you think that will work better than the status quo."

All About China

Check out a great map on China by clicking on the picture.

TANSTAAFB

There ain't no such thing as a free burrito. Well if you watch a video for a minute and a half, you can get the closest thing to a free burrito. Eat your heart out here, at the link on Facebook. Or check out the latest stock price.

Gas Prices in Europe vs. U.S.A.

Terracotta Warroirs: Xi'an, China

Check out this video I took in China last summer. Be sure to watch in 1080 HD.

Cartoon of the Day

Please click to enlarge...

Can He Really Do This?

In the above video, some British dude tries to make a toaster on his own, to demonstrate the wonders of trade and comparative advantage, all the while dispelling myths about economic self-sufficiency.

"Best Jobs" according to the Wall Street Journal

Here is a list of the Best Jobs in America based on "200 jobs based on income, working environment, stress, physical demands and job outlook, using data from the Labor Dept. and U.S. Census and researchers' own expertise." Click the above image to enlarge, and go here to see the complete list.

International Test Score Rankings

More here from 2 million minutes blog. Click to enlarge.

The Teen Economy

CNBC at the Consumer Electronics Show: "Taking a Bite Out of Apple"

BLOGONOMICS!

Please click here for the project instructions.

You can find economics news articles, and much more here, at the Redonomics News Universe.

Photo of the Day

Those Zimbabwe dollars really are worthless.

Helpful Links for The Stock Market Game

1. CNBC - Jim Cramer's Mad Money Stock Tips Here.

2. CBS Marketwatch here.

3. Morningstar Stock Research here.

4. Motley Fool click here.

5,000 Janitors with PHD's?

Here you see the over 317,000 waiters and waitresses with college degrees, please click to enlarge.
Check out the whole article here

Gas Prices Around The World

It Could be Worse.

Source.

Economics of Everyday Life

Food Photos: China Edition

Marshmallow Towers

The goal of the game is to make the most profit, which of course is total revenues minus total cost. For each tower, each inch up to 4 inches is worth $1000, and every inch above 4 inches is worth $2000. The variable costs are marshmallows ($50), and toothpicks ($100). Each group has fixed costs of $1000, which do not change with output. Bonuses are given as well for being able to hold piece of paper for 5 seconds, and to be able to stand straight for 3 seconds. The group right below this won, with a profit of $12,300. Congrats!!

Well built tower below, very high revenue, but also high variable costs.
This one looks tasty. Unfortunately, not a winner.
Another good effort.
High marshmallow content, also high variable cost.
A great tower, but lots of variable costs.

Mr. T is now promoting Gold: Maybe a Sign of a Bubble?

It's come to this: The Gold ATM. Seriously.

While gold has hit record highs, it will soon be available at your local ATM. Check out the video.

Robot Hair Washers

Creative Destruction in action... a robot takes another job. This time it is at
the hair salon. One thing that the video doesn't elaborate on is how the robot
is actually scanning the user's head shape in three dimensions to figure out
just the right amount of pressure to apply, and it will use that shape to
remember who you are and what shampoo and massage settings you like.

Map of The Online World

Please click to enlarge

The Street meets Wall Street. Jay-Z and Warren hang out in Omaha.

Check this out at Forbes, a neat interview.

Economic Boom in North Dakota? You Betcha.

As you can see below, (click to enlarge) North Dakota has the country's best unemployment rate (3.6%). Check out the full list here. This is in part due to record oil production of 321,000 barrels per day.