Category: Hot Topics
Hot Topic: Ubernomics
In 4 short years, Uber brought down the taxi kings of New York City. Students examine data from medallion sales and ride sharing services, and then identify the incentives and institutions that first closed the taxi market in 1937 and then flooded it with competition in 2011.
Hot Topic: It’s All In the Bag!
In the Bag! uses the economic way of thinking to investigate luxury markets, focusing on how firms like Hermès, Ferrari, and many elite universities use market power to restrict quantity supplied and keep prices high.
UPDATE – Target: Big Game Hunting
Last month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service added the African lion to the Endangered Species List. Should wildlife lovers celebrate or cry?
Review the economic reasoning tools you learned in “Target: Trophy Hunting” to decide whether this latest development truly honors Cecil.
Hot Topic: Sun Burn?
Just in time for the Paris Conference on Climate Change!
“Sun Burn?: Paying the Bill for Solar Energy” uses the economic way of thinking to examine and evaluate the rules of the game that shape development of solar energy in the United States.
In this lesson, students practice using ERPs #3&4, identifying the “rules of the game” and the incentives shaping the solar industry.
Hot Topic: Gas Prices ?!?
Moaning about the rising price of oil and gasoline has become part of our daily routine. We expect rising gas prices because . . . . Well, because, in our experience, that’s what gas prices do. But then, they didn’t! The price of gasoline began falling last summer . . . and it kept falling and kept falling – until the national average price in January was $2.05/gallon. #HowCanThatBe? Use the economic way of thinking and Economic Reasoning Propositions 3&4 to figure it out.
Hot Topic: Chocapocalypse?!
The potential for a “chocapocalypse” isn’t just advertising hype. Take a walk through the store and check out the price of chocolate. The boxes and bags – and even good old chocolate chips – are pretty pricey. (And, just sayin’, chocolate chip cookies without the chocolate chips . . . )
Hot Topic: Running Scared – Children Crossing the Border
Fall, 2014 (reposted Dec., 2015) Estimates of the number of unaccompanied children who tried to cross the border into the…
Hot Topic: Captain Phillips: Pirate Economics
Economics in the movies! Ripped from the big screen just in time for Halloween! Check out “Captain Phillips: Pirate Economics.” Our latest hot topic uses the economic way of thinking (ERPs #1&2) to explain how getting in a tiny fishing boat and traveling 200 miles across a sea patrolled by the U.S. Navy to attack a cargo ship might actually be a rational choice rather than just plain craziness.
Hot Topic: Why Is There Corn In Your Coke? (April, 2013)
LearnLiberty, a project of the Institute for Humane Studies (a non-profit dedicated to “learning about the ideas of a free society” ) has generously invited the FTE to use their videos in lessons on economic reasoning. The provocatively titled “Why Is There Corn in Your Coke?” explains how the institutional “rules of the game” can affect even such mundane choices as whether soft drinks are sweetened with sugar or corn syrup, and sets the stage for understanding the power of special interest groups in our current national debates over gun control and immigration policy.
Economic Reasoning & Immigration (March 2013)
Immigration reform is front and center in the news and emotions are high. It’s ‘hot.” It’s also the first in our new series of Hot Topics in partnership with Gooru Learning.
Check out our new Hot Topic blended learning format. FTE – Gooru Hot Topics provide students the background instruction, reading, and viewing that allow you to run engaging simulations, discussions, and group projects using economic reasoning in the clasroom.