Chapter 12 Reflection

Now that you have had a chance to think about tax systems, which type do you prefer? How do you think the concept of equity or fairness fits into a tax system?

I prefer the flat tax system.

I think fairness fits into the tax system in the sense that everybody has to pay taxes and everybody can benifit from them.

Chapter 11 Reflection

Think of an example of a Public Good. What are the costs of providing the good? What are the benefits? Is there another way to have the good provided? Did this chapter cause you to think of public goods differently? In what way?

Before reading the chapter, I didn't know what a public good is. An example of a public good would be the radio. Radio programs must spend money to produce them, but that does not effect the people that tune in. The stuff heard on the radio by on person is also available to everyone else. There is no other way this good is provided.

Chapter 10 Reflection

What is your favorite example of a negative externality? Could the problem be solved via negotiation (Coase Theorom)? How or why not?

The example in the book was interesting about factories emitting pollution and how bystanders are being affected. This problem could possibly be solved by the Coase Theorom if one of those bystanders cared enough and had a great amount of money to negotiate with the factory.

Chapter 9 Reflection

What was your opinion about restrictions on international trade before reading this chapter? Have you changed your mind? Strenghtened your opinion? In what ways and why? What was the most interesting part of the chapter to you? Why? 

Before reading this chapter, my opinion about restrictions on internation trade was that it should be fairly easy to do so, but a little expensive too. After reading the chapter, I haven't changed my mind. Being able to trade internationally is important and benefitial, but if international companies want to make money from the U.S., I feel they should pay a fee.

I didn't really see any negatives in international trade before reading the chapter. It's interesting now knowing that there are negatives. When exporting goods, the nation's consumers are worse off and when importing a good, the nation's producers are worse off.

Chapter 8 Reflection

How important do you think the concept of a deadweight loss to taxation is? Why or why not?

It's a little important...

Should politicians and other taxing authorities consider DWL when making their decisions?

Yes.

Chapter 7 Reflection

Describe efficiency from the perspective of an economist.

It is "the property of a resource allocation of maximizing the total surplus recieved by all members of society." Economic efficiency is when goods are produced at the lowest possible cost.

What was the most difficult concept in this chapter for you? Why?

The market equilibrium was the most difficult for me... I had a hard time understanding the graphs in Figure 7 and 8 and what all the lines, points, and shaded parts mean.

 

Chapter 6 Reflection

In April, there was a flurry of blog posts from economists on price controls and inflation in Venezuela. Read this article from the Times and this post from Cafe Hayek. How does this relate to the theories from the chapter?

Now consider a different case. After Hurricane Katrina speculators brought in bottled water, but charged quite a lot for it. What might have happened had price controls been imposed? Where does the concept of fairness fit into this category?

Chapter 5 Reflection

Give an example of sales based on price elasticities that you have seen or used. Why do you think it worked (or didn't work)?

My aunt works at a restaurant where a glass of draft beer only costs 25 cents on Wednesdays. Wednesday nights our crowded with customers who will sit for hours drinking beer after beer. It works, because many people enjoy cheap beer.

What topic made the least sense to you in this chapter?

This is probably the only chapter I've read so far that has made complete sense to me...

Chapter 4 Reflection

The news in April was all about oil speculators driving up the price of oil, and thus the price of gasoline whch was averaging close to $4.00/gallon. In light of this chapter, what role do speculators play in thee market? Are they responsible for large price hikes?

The speculator's role is to keep track of production, notice shortages, and move products to places that need them. They're not responsible for large price hikes. Gas is expensive, because there is a shortage and that is what causes the raise in price.

For a defense of speculators read http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2012/04/a_ban_on_oil_sp.html. Comment based on the chapter's theory.

No comment...

Chapter 3 Reflections

What surprised you most about this chapter? Why?

The article Ogre to Slay? Outsource It to China by David Barboza surprised me the most in the chapter. Everything else seemed familiar. I remember reading about trade in Social Studies while in middle school, although I didn't think it was related to economics. (Well, now I know.) The article surprised me because I thought it was funny how gamers in the United States are willing to pay people in China to play the early levels of games for them. They do this because they're inpatient and want to skip ahead to the more difficult levels... Wow! How pathetic is that? The Chinese gamers make about $250 a month, and it's also surprising how a particular Chinaman in the article could be satisfied with this pay. He sits in front a computer screen for 12 hours, 7 days a week. 

What is your opinion about international trade? Overall is it good or bad? Why?

My opinion is that international trade is an overall good thing. If a country produces something better or more abundant than another country, it benefits both of them. The United States has great land to grow food and they make awesome cars in Japan. What would the U.S. do with all of its produce if we didn't trade it? We're obese enough. And Japan with all their awesome cars? They don't even have enough room to drive or park all of them. In international trade, everyone wins.

Chapter 2 Reflections

How does the use of a very simplified model of the economy such as those found in a production possibilities frontier help you understand the economy?

 The production possibilities frontier helps to understand economy by telling whether or not the economy is getting all it can from the scarce resources available.

Points A, B, and C, on the orange line, represent the production possibility frontier where the economy is getting all it can from the resources available. Point X represents inefficient outcome, which could be for the reason of high unemployment.

Give an example of a positive or normative statement about the economy. Why does it matter which it is?

"Raising the tax on beer will cause a fall of profits for its brewers." This is a positive statement that can be proven true or false by evidence or conducting tests. A normative statement carries value judgement.

Chapter 1 Reflections

What in this chapter made you think about an economic concept differently than your previous beliefs?

Before reading the first chapter, I hardly knew what economics was. I often hear the phrase, "The economy is so bad right now" usually followed by complaints about President Obama. I thought that economics was all about how much money our country was making and about unemloyment rates. I didn't really think about how those could be the outcomes of the decisions people in our economy had made. I didn't know that our economy was about our society as a whole. There's still a lot for me to learn about economics.

What new questions do you have now about the US economy based on this chapter?

I would like to know what kind of goods and services the United States produces for the world.

I want to know how the high quanitity of money would cause inflation and if it causes infaltion, why would a country want to print more money?