Soft Deadlines for Weeks One and Two

By the week of September 19:
1. Each student will publish blog post #1 at class blog. (Log post for credit.)
2. Each team will share Google Spreadsheet details with Mr. O.

By the week of September 12:
1. Each class section will develop its blog site.
2. Each team will set up its Google Spreadsheet.
3. Each student will write comment #1 - about a post in Oakridge Econ Blogs. (Find students' work by following links to Groups 1-4)
4. Each student will log comment #1 at team's Google Spreadsheet.

Vision Statement

As students learn ways of thinking that are common to the study of micro and macro economics, I am hopeful that they will develop a 'mindset' for thinking about current affairs using the basic vocabulary of economics. This blog project, then, is an effort to create space and apply course work to analyze current affairs.

I'm excited about engaging students in authentic conversations about economics regarding issues and ideas that are both meaningful and relevant to them. I'm hoping this project will be 'messy' and improvisational... and in the process students and I will learn from each other.

We invite you to join our conversations: read our posts and comment on our ideas: engage us, challenge us, and learn with us.

Featured Post of the Month (June)

Toyota Quarterly Profits Drop; Recovery Expected
by Santi Z.

According to a BBC article, “Toyota Motors' profits plummeted by 77% in the last quarter because of disruption caused by March's earthquake. “ Reports say that profits fell to $315.5 million USD between January and March. The drop is caused due to a shortage of parts caused by the earthquake. They claim that by July production will start increasing but that it will not recover until the end of the year. Toyota Motors is currently having a shortage. Thought eh demand remains the same or probably even higher, the company is unable to supply the quantity demanded causing disequilibrium. During this time of the shortage Toyota will losing customers to competitors creating a substantial loss of profit for the company. But as well over the time of their shortage, demand will build up, as more and more consumer want to purchase a car from Toyota. This build up of demand will eventually benefit the company in the future when they are able to supply the quantity demanded. Over the next few months their production will pick up and the factory will start being able to supply more cars, witch eventually will put their market back in equilibrium and some of their profit will be made up by the excess demand during the shortage.

Featured Post of Month (May)

Facebook's Next Economic Move?
by Lizzie S.

Facebook will begin paying users 10 cents if they will watch certain ads. Users will be paid in “Facebook Credits” which will yield about 10 cents per ad. The Facebook credits can be redeemed to purchase goods on Facebook Deals. Facebook Deals is a program similar to Groupon. It is hard to determine whether or not this will be enough of an initiative to motivate users to view ads. Watching an ad can take a long time and 10 cents is not very much money. Although these ads are time consuming Dan Greenberg, CEO of Sharethrough, (the company making these ads), claims that the ads will be more than entertaining. So maybe the entertainment factor will be more of an incentive for users to be motivated to watch these ads. If the popularity of these ads increase the products being advertised will also increase in demand. This is a smart move made by Facebook because they will recieve a lot of revenue from the ad company because the ad company must pay Facebook in order for them to show their ads. It is too early to determine how smart of a move it was for the Sharethrough to pay Facebook to show their ads. The success of their ads will be determined based on whether the entertainment supplied by these ads and 10 cent yield will be enough of an initiative for Facebook users to want to watch the ads. If this new innovative ad idea has a successful outcome, (sucessful, meaning many people watch the ads) than it will be extremely beneficial for the company. If ads offer a good enough initiative for people than the products being advertised will increase in demand dramatically. Since Facebook is such a highly populated website, when the popularity of the ad increases the demand for the product advertised will be extremely widespread.

Featured Post of the Week (4/15)

H&M Store Openings Worldwide
by Kate M.

Shopping in Dallas, as well as many other locations around the world, is about to change. In a difficult economic time sticker shock has been a common reaction to clothing prices. As people are more sensitive and conscious about how they spend their money it is likely that expensive clothes is not on many lists of inelastic goods. However, it is common nature for one to want to look presentable and while girls do love to shop they don’t want to sacrifice their style for the unstylish, yet cheaper, substitutes. Therefore it becomes frustrating when prices push desirable clothes too far out of reach. The continuous expansion of H&M openings worldwide will allow shoppers access to the clothes they want without having to break the bank and allow stylish clothes to be within reach. As a result of H&M’s lower prices they are likely to receive more business because they are offering great merchandise at a lower cost, which is the consumer’s ultimate goal. North park, the future home of the newest H&M store, is likely to make a great profit off of the new addition. The combination of tough economic times and North park’s more typical high-end stores can only result in an outcome of slow business. H&M’s quality merchandise at lower prices should help to bring customers back to the mall and begin to liven the shopping experience again.

Featured Post of the Week (4/6)

Royal Diet Pains
by Alexis R. 

Dr. Atkins – French style? Yet another hard to follow diet fad has swept the royal wedding stalkers and is spreading. It is called the Dukan diet after Dr. Pierre Dukan of France. There are four phases that have strict allowances on what you can eat and when making the diet even more hard and expensive. Phase one sets the base for the diet in which only lean protein is allowed, in later phases grains, veggies and desserts are tempered back into daily eating plans. Warnings of nutritional hazards come with any extreme diet but the Dukan diet can also take a toll on your wallet. Changing your lifestyle so suddenly means that you have to buy all new groceries to fit your new eating schedule. It seems strange that people are willing to dramatically shift they way they live because they see one short-term success story from a celebrity. Instead of gradually changing your choices when it comes to food and exercise, people will willingly toss everything they know aside to jump on a new diet bandwagon. Today nobody seems to have the patience to work for the body they want, but if the mother of Kate Middleton can lose four pounds in four days then so can the rest of the world…or can they? People ignore the process of weighing the costs and benefits of dieting and the potential outcomes but they look at the short term results and even if they fail they can check another popular diet off their list. Bodies don’t change overnight or through phases, they change through daily choices that we make to better ourselves.

Featured Post of the Week (3/28)

Rising Costs of Tuition for Higher Ed
by Bri S.

Legislators have come up with ideas to cover for cuts in state funding by raising the tuition of colleges. Their ideas are coming up with money from the private sector, ending tax exemptions, and protecting higher education in the state constitution. Since it's in a dangerous position ideas have been proposed. Increasing tuition and having more a more flexible tuition is an idea. Even though this is making many students pay more, it is helping the state cuts. This has an affect on who will be attending these colleges though. Students start raising money at a young age to make sure they are able to go to college but with this drastic increase in tuition, it is stopping them from getting to where they want. If the price goes up, then the quantity of people attending these colleges will go down. Having such a high tuition for these schools will probably create a more competitive scholarship program and even student loans. These student loans can lead to debt with such a high cost of schooling.  Another idea is offering tax incentives to businesses that contribute to scholarships endowments, which would raise $1 billion over 10 years. Students are unaware of these cuts in higher education so it is making students drop out of school due to them going into debt. Another idea is that colleges and students can get money from the state business and occupation tax if they are required to give it to the public university system, which is also a cause of debt. It is a necessity to cover all the cuts and this could come from the increase of college tuition. However, raising money and taxes to cover for college education has the ability to make our economy come to a crash.