Economics

**Economics**  toc

=General Economics Resources= [Contributed by David Grosoff]

Background
//Grade//: 12th //Student population//: Elective Course

Resources
1) The Economic Naturalist – Many questions, including, “why, over the centuries, have women’s clothes buttoned from the left, while men’s have always buttoned from the right?” 2) Video – Wall Street clip – Gordon Gekko “Greed is Good” speech related to “economic reality,” “greed,” and business ethics. 3) Case study – Pick’n’ Pay – this is a case study on economic ethics that I received when I obtained my Executive MBA certificate in corporate ethics at IPADE in Mexico City. This international-based case goes to the heart of what economic ethics mean when faced with a life or death situation. 4) Video – Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (Chapter 2 of DVD – 2 minutes) – Ben Stein gives lecture on macroeconomics, while students in the class receiving lecture are demonstrating what microeconomic actors do. 5) Wall Street Journal – We will use this in class on a daily basis. The Journal can assist students with a variety of learning needs, as information is provided in graphical, numerical, textual, charts, and photographical formats. 6) History of Economic Thought: A Critical Perspective, pp. 1-5, E.K. Hunt – Economics Professor from Colorado provides a Marxian/Socialist critique of capitalism by looking at what determines a commodity’s value. I am jigsawing this with other readings on capitalism (pro and middle of the road). 7) Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, David Ricardo – This reading will contrast in jigsaw with Hunt and Marx’s readings. Also serves as an introduction to reading The Choice, infra, that will be used as a text in the same Unit. 8) Capital: Volume 1 – A selection from Karl Marx’s text will be used in class. The pages will be determined, based on other Marx readings in this class and in conjunction with English 12 course during the first weeks of class. 9) The Commanding Heights – Outstanding book and documentary film regarding the history of neoclassical economics and development economics that begins at World War I’s beginning and ends at invasion of Iraq during the “Mission Accomplished” failure. 10) Selected readings re: South Sea Bubble by Edmund Burke – The specifics will be developed in conjunction with the English 12 teacher. 11) Selected readings from Adam Smith – The specific pages will be developed in conjunction with the English 12 teacher. 12) Selected readings (in addition to Capital: Volume 1) – The specific pages will be developed in conjunction with the English 12 teacher. 13) The Choice by Russell Roberts – this excellent reader, written well below a high school level, provides in simple terms a thought provoking scenario about how economic globalization impacts the world in which we currently live and how economies are intertwined, and relate specifically to today’s bailout of GM, Ford, Chrysler, despite being written prior to their current crises. 14) Video – Bourne Identity – DVD Chapter 8 (25:40-27:00) – The scene from this movie highlights consumer/producer surplus and gains from trade. The snipped Illustrates concepts discussed in The Choice. 15) Video – Cast Away – DVD Chapter 17 (7 minutes) – In this movie the scene demonstrates specialization, comparative advantage by seeing how Tom Hanks’ character deals with fire.