The Government Actually Gets Something Right

Most people who know me know that I'm not always the biggest fan of the government. I mean, nothing gets me down like The Man. But according to this article, there is at least one thing that the government and I agree on: hoverboards are pretty much the worst. 

A necessary evil

An unnecessary evil

See, I find hoverboards to be pretty annoying. First of all, they don't actually hover. I see those wheels touching the ground. They aren't fooling anyone. When you can get me a full-on Jetsons, fly-around, 1970s-vision-of-what-2003-looks-like type of hoverboard, I am totally game. But these monstrous little creations can just wheel themselves right back into whatever Pit of Evil they came out of.

Acceptable hoverboard that is NOT made of lies

In addition to not actually hovering, hoverboards are annoying, not as fun as they claim to be, and are really dangerously unsafe. There have been countless reports of them malfunctioning and catching on fire, along with the obvious elements of the ease with which a user could face-plant into the concrete. Now, like many of the things Americans just can't get enough of, hoverboards are manufactured in China and imported into the United States. However, ability to import this product is soon to change. The International Trade Comission has moved to stop the import of hoverboards so they are no longer a viable, legal thing for China to export to America. Along with hoverboards being declared unsafe by another American agency, the U.S Consumer Product Safety Commission, there have also been some legal issues concerning the technology used in hoverboards, which the American company Segway claims to have a patent on. Personally, I think people fighting over who gets to claim they created the hoverboard is like all the different European countries fighting over who really caused the conflict in World War I. Yes, eventually someone gets to claim "credit," but is it really a victory? Who's to say.

Anyway, international trade is an important facet of the American economy. Americans like stuff, and  we like stuff cheap, and a majority of that cheap stuff we like comes from foreign countries. However, international trade can't always be free trade. International trade is important to our economy -- it keeps money flowing not only within the U.S but between the U.S and other countries that creates circular flow on a grander scale -- and its importance is exactly why it needs to be regulated. Governing bodies, like the ITC, sometimes have to intervene in import and export policies to make sure that Americans aren't purchasing goods that are too problematic. Because international trade is, well, international, it involves a lot of different countries with different policies regarding what is safe and viable as a consumer good. Some goods that are deemed sellable in other countries do not meet the safety standards or legal practices in the U.S, which means that importation of these items needs to be stopped, at least until there is further investigation. And I don't think we need to do too much investigating to decide that hoverboards don't really need to be a player in international trade. 

Same, news update thingy. Same.

 

Raining on our Inflationary Parade

This is a two-part blog of excellent economic adventures, because I have no sense of short, straight-to-the-point writing.

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PART ONE: THE STORM
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I don't know if you've been keeping up with our global economy, but if you have, you'd know that it is craptastic. Is there even such a word? Well I'd like to imagine that if a person is doing so badly a job at something that instead of saying fantastic, the freudian slip would instead be craptastic because -wow- some countries's economies right now are just so craptastic.

Why do we care about what other countries are doing? Well unfortunately, apparently, we're in a global market so we can't exactly put up a wall and ignore their existence (yea I'm talking about you Donald Trump) so their well-being kind of affects us. It's sort of like that one sick kid in your classroom. As much as you'd like to just pretend that they're totally not raining on the happy parade school brings to everyone's day, viruses spread through the air and affect your health too, so I guess you give that kid medicine or something? Or maybe just not rub it in their face about how healthy you are, which apparently the U.S. has to do now since we have a few sickly, malnourished kiddos in our global classroom.

Wow, you can almost see the viruses of bad economic decisions.

So Japan's economy isn't really making the world look very good right now. They've gone and done the unthinkable, passing policies that had people dropping their porcelain cups of coffee and dramatically fainting with arms thrown back like in those old-timey movies. If you didn't know, Japan has decided to pass a policy on these fantastic, risky things called *gasp* negative interest rates. Ah, what? Wait did I read that right, negative interest rates? Is that... possible? Like, how does that work? Question mark???

Okay, it's a little weird. Countries typically don't play around with negative interest rates, because they can get kind of complicated. In general, if a country enforces a negative interest rates policy, they are essentially encouraging banks to help pump more money back into the economy.

Now, now. You can't bring that money here. Go out and buy yourself a nice, new suit.

A country's federal bank will penalize the smaller banks if they withhold too much money in their reserves. This method helps promote spending by the consumers to help kickstart the economy. Okay yea, I mean that makes sense, what's wrong with that? It helps speed up the circular flow, so why would this cause issues? Don't worry, I didn't really see the problem at first, but after watching heck tons of business news shows and reading all of the articles, ever, you'll see why this can be sort of problematic. Truly desperate times call for truly desperate measures.

Let's make some inferences on why negative interests rates are not the best. So, you're one of the commercial banks, and the Fed just said that you can't hold too much of the consumers's deposits in your reserves, because they need consumers to start spending more. Alright, but uhhh, you're a bank, and one of the things you really need to depend on is people saving their money in your bank while also borrowing money. But how are many people gonna borrow money if you don't have a lot in the reserves? Alright, well if the fed's gonna make you feel the pain, you do the most logical thing: make the consumers feel the pain by raising the rates you charge to save their money. Makes sense right? Well, you see people don't like that. These hypothetical consumers then decide to deny the need for a bank account and withdraw all of their money from the bank and keep it in a safe at home, because why should I pay a company so much to hold my money when I can do it for free at home? Okay yea one person, not so bad, that is until it's a lot of people. And now it's a lot of people per bank. And there's lots of banks in your country. Welp. That went really well. You see, negative interests may seem great in theory, but they really can turn bad really quickly under various circumstances. That hypothetical situation I just discussed? Not only is it putting millions of consumers in risk by not having their money protected, but it also harshly damages the financial district of our economy, which is also pretty important to help the circular flow. Pretty complicated huh? Now do you see why we can't exactly ignore Japan's sudden onset of negative-interest-rateitis, because yes I am a doctor, and I am so qualified to diagnose sickly countries.

How does this all tie in to the good 'ole stars and stripes? Tune in next time to find out the exciting conclusion to this two-part series of self-doubt and worry!

Why Are So Many Old TV Shows Being Rebooted?

Recently there have been many old tv shows brought back or been made into sequels: Heroes, Full House, and 24. It has become very popular to remake shows; I know that some of the favorite shows such as Prison Break and Gilmore Girls are also going to be rebooted. So why are so many shows being rebooted?

One factor that plays in this is the success that the other reboots have had. Hawaii 5 O's reboot took off as well as Fargo. This success caused other popular old shows to be reconsidered. Shows that people believe were cancelled too soon or just ended to soon were reconsidered. Though rebooting has been a success for some shows, other shows such as Heroes didn't get as lucky. Heroes: Reborn got cancelled after one series. One reason why this show might have been more of a bust then others is that not many of the original cast members returned. On shows like Fuller House and 24 most of the original cast returned. Demand greatly affects shows being rebooted. Demand is one of the most important things to a network, they keep shows that are in high demand, and they also bring back shows that were in high demand and still are now. With a demand increase there has to be an increase in quantity, which is where TV show reboots come in (or another season being made for a current show).

Cut - It - Out

The second factor that explains why TV show reboots have become popular is that recently networks have been more okay with shows that are targeted at a narrower demographic. Networks, used to favor shows with larger demographics, like sitcoms. Which is why through the 80s and 90s you see many comedic sitcoms that are targeted at a wide range of demographics. Shows that didn't have as much of a wide range were usually cancelled to make way for a new show that can target more demographics and bring in more viewers. You might be wondering at this point how this applies to economics, and the answer is again-demand. Demographics are a huge way to increase demand; that's why a wide range was always favored. Now however, demand is still high yet in a smaller range, this is by changing the show to target a specific group of people and advertising it well for that group. If you can target one group really well than that show can be just as successful and have just as high a demand as if it just loosely targeted a wide range of people.

The third factor is new technology. With DVR, online streaming, and video on demand, TV shows are much more accessible. Traditional cop shows and sitcoms were more popular back in the day because if you missed an episode you would be ok, you probably wouldn't miss any major plot point. While serialized shows often got cancelled because people couldn't keep up. But with DVR, and video streaming serialized shows (shows where you can't miss a single episode) have become more popular because if you can't watch it that night then you can find another time to.

I know everyone hated this but I loved it!

Lets be honest there can be many more reasons that old TV shows are rebooted. You don't see me arguing though, I love so many shows that ended and with all this rebooting it gives me hope again. Some people hate that shows are getting rebooted because they think it will ruin the name and be a let down, but for me I love it. You can't compare the reboot to the original show; sometimes they are different. But if you truly loved the original show you can just be happy they brought it back. Unless its Heroes: Reborn, and they leave out all of your favorite characters and replace them.

Wait, Did Gas Prices Just Go Up?

Ever since I heard about how low gas prices are bad for our economy, I've sent pictures of the low gas prices to my friends every time I get gas. So during spring break, I pull in to get gas and look up to take a picture and realize gas prices went up. . . about 30 cents. I'm sitting at 7-11 waiting to get my gas and wondering, how are gas prices up? I don't remember a lot of things, but if I've learned one thing in economics this year it's that we have a surplus of oil which equals low gas prices.
This increase in price had me wondering, what happened? Was there an oil spill I didn't hear about? Did a million gallons of oil just disappear into thin air? Our amount of oil supply couldn't have changed that much, so what was causing this increase in gas prices? According to CBS, during spring and summer gas prices increase because refineries have their annual maintenance done. All during this time, places switch to their summer-grade fuel. Summer-grade fuel, is gas that has a lower RVP (Reid Vapor Pressure). RVP is a measure of how easily fuel evaporates at a certain temperature. Summer-grade fuel has a low RVP to help prevent fuel from evaporating too much on a hot day. Winter-grade fuel is just the opposite, high RVP to help fuel evaporate on cold days.

The change from winter to summer-grade fuel requires a bunch of work at the refineries and the summer-grade is more expensive to produce. This is why gas prices increased and why I couldn't send a picture of low gas prices to my friends and say "what a shame."

The Cost of Vintage

As someone who absolutely loves vintage and vintage reproduction clothing, I've come to realize that my interest has a high price. I have so many reasons why I dress the way that I do, but none of them have to do with logic. There is so much variety within my closet. Probably the most I've spent on a single item in my closet is around $150 for a vintage reproduction skirt. I wear it all the time, and I truly think it's a worthy investment.

Skirt by Pinup Couture.

 However, even though I love this particular skirt, the exorbitant cost causes a loss in my bank account and therefore an  opportunity cost. Instead of being able to buy several modern skirts and/or items, there is a loss because of the fact that you are only getting a single item for $150. Most people would believe that this is completely and totally out of the question. I guess it does depend on how often the individual wears the item. For example, it would actually not be an opportunity cost if I wore this skirt every day. As I'm writing this, I'm feeling worse about purchasing it...but it's beautiful!

Another huge cost of vintage/vintage re-pros is it's really hard to find cute vintage items, in my size, in good condition, for a good price. Now, most people who know me/see me know that I am tiny. But if we're being honest--women and men were differently built back then. Most items I find are about the size of an XXS. & if I do find an item in my size, they're not always the cutest things in the world. This is mostly an issue of scarcity. Think of it this way. It goes back all the way back to the decade when the clothes were made and sold. If the women back then did/did not save clothing, then that's already a certain amount of clothes excluded from the market. So in a way, I really can;t blame any of the vintage sellers for selling items at the excessive prices that they do. Because believe it or not, vintage is coming back, style wise and therefore a good, cute, quality, vintage piece that's out on the market is going to sell insanely quick. 

Welcome To The Grand Collusion

One of the biggest economic issues of the year is the surplus and decreasing value of oil. With so much oil available, competitors continued to drop prices so as to remain competitive and win more consumers to their business rather than a different company. However, the continuously dropping prices were pretty damaging to the companies and the economy overall. Individual companies could not afford to not lower their prices any more because consumers could just switch to readily available substitutes with lower prices, because most consumers don't realize or care that there are other factors involved in economics and they just go where the prices are the best. So, one day in economics class we posed the question of why oil companies don't get together and agree on a baseline price that none of them can go below so that all of them could remain profitable and not have to worry about competing prices getting too low. We were informed that - despite the good intentions - this would be collusion, and collusion is wrong. 

Well, some people don't practice what they preach.

Some people.

You see, collusion is defined as "secret or illegal cooperation in order to cheat or deceive others." Were the oil companies to get together and decide that they would arbitrarily fix the price to make more money, that would be cheating the market. Supply and demand would dictate that the price could be lower, but because of sneaky, underhanded deals, things don't work out how they're supposed to. Collusion seems pretty unfair, yeah? Well it gets worse. The oil market is all well and good, sure, I guess it's important or whatever, but we all know what really matters in life: "friendly" games of Monopoly. 

Few people know that the man in the top hat is actually

the devil, ready to shake your hand and seal the deal

selling your soul in exchange for a hotel on Park Place. 

"What does collusion have to do with a board game that offers fun for the whole family?" one might ask. Well, the optimism in this question is charming but extremely misguided, as there is nothing fun or family about Monopoly. Monopoly is named after the economic term "monopoly" (the exclusive possession or control of the supply or in a commodity or service) that is in itself a type of corruption, but monopoly is a kind of cutthroat every man for himself type of corruption whereas collusion is a lethal combination of teamwork and selfishness. So what does collusion have to do with Monopoly? Well, it has no business being involved, but some people are just bad people.

So let's say you're playing Monopoly, and someone - hypothetically of course - decides to trade all of their properties and money to someone else for a single dollar. I know what you're thinking: no one would do that, that is ridiculous and stupid, and I fully agree. That's why this is all hypothetical. Because no one would ever think to do such a thing. But for funzies, let's say someone did. Whoever this person made an underhanded deal with would now have much greater control over the board as well as an unfair stake in the flow of cash through the market. This, sad to say, is collusion. You see, the parties involved cooperate to take down other competitors. Let's say neither Party A nor Party B is talented enough at Monopoly to win on their own, so Party B decides to knock himself out of the running and help Party A. Party B knows that he cannot win in any scenario, so he decides to help Party A and ruin the days and spring breaks of the other involved parties. 

Now I like to think I'm a pretty reasonable person and a good sport when it comes to games. (I'm not, but I do like to think I am.) But reasonable or not, as a red-blooded American I am truly bothered by dishonesty and corruption in my economics and in my board games. 

Every time collusion happens in America, a 

majestic bald eagle loses its wings. 

Trust me, I am a scientist. 

So, how does collusion damage the economy? Well, collusion involves rival companies conspiring against the consumer or other competitors for mutual benefit, which affects competition in the market. Collusion can involve dividing the market, setting prices, limiting production, and limiting opportunities. Collusion is damaging to the consumer, damaging to the integrity of the market, and damaging to the soul. Avoid collusion at all costs, not only because it is wrong but also because it can  negatively impact small businesses with delicate blue eyes and kind hearts who find themselves bankrupt in a Monopoly game unfairly and before their time. And if you are going to collude, which I do not endorse, it is probably in your best interest - hypothetically of course - to collude with someone who always actually posts their blog posts on time. 

Swooning over Macarons

Okay the title only makes more sense if you read macarons as macaroons.

So, let's backtrack through the year and talk about the wonders of utils. You know what utils are right? What. You don't remember?? So shameful.

Utils are a unit of measurement for the utility of a good or service. Measuring a good or service's utility is the same as measuring the usefulness a person finds in them. So, while the infinite number of utils Alyssa can find in eating another donut, someone like Zoe, who doesn't love donuts as much, can find a significantly smaller number of utils in said donuts.

Now, while we all may poke fun at Alyssa's obsession with the wonderful sugary, fried circle pastries that are donuts, we could all sympathize. There are always some foods in this world that you just really question yourself, "Do I really need to buy another one? I only have enough money to get home, but that's more than enough to buy another one.... I'm gonna buy another one." Okay let's hope you don't actually get stuck in a situation like this, but there is always one delicious food item in this world that will really make you question your self-restraint. And I was faced with such an ordeal, and failed. Miserably

Just look at them!! So cute and delicious

Have you ever had a macaron? They're not always amazing every time you try one, but once you've found a good one. Wow.

Here's the real lesson in this blogpost: learn how to control your obsessions or else you'll almost, almost, spend lots of money you don't have.

So, when I went to San Francisco this past summer, I had the pleasure of walking around the boardwalks and checking out all the need stores and restaurants. Well, just my luck that I found this cute little pastry shop called Miette Patisserie, which is french for Crumb Pastry. How cute. Anyways, I saw jars and jars full of different flavored macarons for only $1.50 a macaron. And these macarons looked soooo heavenly. Really, the $1.50 for these nicely sized macarons was not a bad price, so I bought around 6 macarons, 1 of each flavor. I won't describe to you the amazing, deliciousness that were these cookies, but let's just say, after eating those macarons, I bought about 5 dozen more over the period of 3 days left of my trip. Yea. Like I said, it was real bad.

Shameless advertising for my most favorite dessert shop ever.

I tried controlling myself from buying more macarons, I really did. But really, let's look at this in a utility standpoint! I had only a scant number of days in a city that requires many hours of air travel, these macarons were relatively cheap, and wow they are so freaking good. I don't know about you, but that's quite a number of utils I can get by buying another macaron. Well, decision paralysis may have been... some sort of factor in my choice to buy macarons. I was thinking about all those non-price affecting factors for my reasons to buy another macaron, that oh look at that, I'm already buying another dozen.

Economics can be a kind of dangerous thing wants you understand it. Trying to reason with yourself to buy more macarons by analyzing utility really is just not good for your money when the utils are off the charts.

Shhh... logic is not welcome when macarons are on the line.

Okay, but that wasn't even the really bad part. When I got home from San Francisco, and finished the dozen of macarons that I had bought to bring home to Texas, I was so obsessed over these cookies that I googled the restaurant and found out YOU CAN SHIP MACARONS. But uhhh, one small problem. There's kind of a shipping fee, that kind of requires a plan to ship it, in kinda of a short amount of time. It kind of cost like $60 to ship about $12 worth of macarons....... I'm so glad I have some basic understanding of self-restraint, because wow was I heavily weighing the pros and cons of buying those macarons. To be fair, those utils, they never lessened. They're still very, very high.

In the end, I didn't spend $72 for a dozen macarons, but did I really almost consider that the utility of getting a dozen macarons flown from San Francisco was really worth it? Hecks yea I did.

The Top Three Things I learned from EKernomics

After a 9 week term in EKernomics, I learned many things (believe it or not). But in order to save time, I've simply cut

1. 3. Keeping up with blog posts is important.

& that one's pretty self explanatory...

     2. Supply and Demand graphs are my favorite part of Econ.

This isn't just because of the fact that this is the theory that came easiest to me--I genuinely found S & D to be a fascinating/simplified look at society. I have quickly learned that Supply and Demand can apply to everything from Easy Cheese to the Bachelor. In other words, Supply and Demand comes in...

3.  Mr. Kern is prone to savage tactics when playing Monopoly.

You can't necessarily always count on him to make the best economic decisions. Sometimes the risk of "good" intentions (if I can even call them that) of helping Hudson can result in a bad economic state. Cough cough.

What I Learned In Boating School Is _______

I didn't really know what to expect going into economics this nine weeks. I figured it would be confusing and I wouldn't really know what was going on and above all else, I assumed it would be boring. As it turns out, boring is probably the last word I would use to describe eKernomics this term.   Whether we're pointing out the obvious flaws in the Bachelor (that show has really taken a beating in this class) or discussing the economic logic of marrying rich, nine weeks of economics has actually flown by pretty fast, and not only did I enjoy it but I actually feel like I learned a lot, and in the next nine-isa weeks I hope to learn about more topics (maybe something about how taxes work?) Here I'll list some of the most important lessons I'll be taking away from this nine weeks of economics, and in case all the blatant sucking up I just did isn't quite enough to get me an A on this blog, I guess I should actually try to demonstrate some economic understanding within the things I list.

Lesson One: If you're ever arguing for a planned economy, "stability" is your best friend.
Right off the bat, we were thrown the challenge of arguing for a planned economy. Not only did no one in my group actually support the idea of having a planned economy, but we also had only had like two classes so far, so our understanding of how economics even worked or what can be considered good or bad policies was pretty limited. Alyssa and me trying to understand what any of the Wikipedia page about planned economies meant was pretty pathetic, if you can even imagine there ever being a time when me and Alyssa weren't complete economics experts. Fortunately, our friend The Stability Argument really came in handy. Whenever growth isn't happening, argue for good ol' stability. The economy might be wrecked, but at least it's wrecked consistently. (It makes sense if you don't think about it.) And hey, don't be afraid to break out some shining examples like North Korea and Turkmenistan.

Lesson Two: Eating 12 donuts in a row is a terrible idea.
The spiel about "too much of a good thing" isn't just a bunch of nonsense our parents made up to avoid having to spent money on things we want. It's a real thing, although in economics it's called The Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns. While we may think that because we get a certain amount of utils (a unit of measurement we all use but weren't really aware of until like 7 weeks ago) from a single donut, 11 more donuts will give us 11 times that amount of utils. However, all those 11 extra donuts will get you is many, many regrets. After a while, eating donuts stops being awesome and starts being horrible, which goes to prove that economics really can ruin anything.

Lesson Three: We are now at the point in our lives when we spiral into crippling debt.
When seniors think of college, normally they think of the awesome things like new friends and fun classes and independence. But thanks to economics, I now have plenty of paranoia and anxiety about the fact that college is an extremely expensive investment that takes a billion years to pay back, assuming you can even find work after college because apparently there are three different types of unemployment.

Lesson Four: The 2016 election doesn't really matter because Janet Yellen is our secret overlord
If you had asked me who Janet Yellen was in December, I would have had no idea who you were talking about. Now, it feels like I'm constantly talking about Janet Yellen. Janet Yellen comes up in conversation all the time. Janet Yellen controls all of our futures with monetary policy, which I didn't even know was a thing, and none of us were even aware she was a person with this much control over our economy. Adam Smith was right, it seems. There is an invisible hand in our economy, and that hand belongs to Janet freaking Yellen.

Lesson Five: When in doubt, just ask Zo.
I pride myself in having learned a lot about economics these past nine weeks, but I still have to acknowledge that there have been an uncountable number of times that I have needed Zoe Truong to explain things to me. For long periods of time. Very, very slowly. Zo understands economics like nobody's business, so we better all be super nice to her, because some day she will be the new Janet Yellen, which means we'll all need her to get us out of the aforementioned crippling debt we've gotten ourselves into.

I've learned a lot of things in eKernomics this term. I think the most interesting thing was probably the business cycle (even though it looks more like a wiggly line and circular flow looks more like a cycle. not saying I should be the one to name economics things, just saying I would be better at it). I think it's interesting how all the good things in an economy can also be bad things and we want to be spinning fast but not too fast and the way economists and policy-makers try to balance all that is really cool. If not that, then maybe scarcity. After all, scarcity is always the answer.


*Bonus lesson: a good blog should always have pictures and links.

obligatoryblogpicture.jpeg

I Demand a Higher Supply of Economics

There are not many people that can say that economics is one of their favorite classes of the day. Of course, I may just be an outlier in that regard, considering my life goals (Janet Yellen is my life goal). But, in our eKERNomics class, we have been taught so many lovely things besides finding ways to make puns out of absolutely everything.

By the way, I could easily tell you the most important thing we've learned from economics right now, but I'll let you wait to see the big reveal in the end. It's a slow process, but it starts just about under the cut. Have fun! (Also I apologize for the big reveal is only effective if read on computer screens, so my dear mobile readers will have to forever be suspended in the limbo of ignorance)

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Just because we don't understand everything about economics right now, doesn't mean we can't
answer the problem, because more than likely it has to do with scarcity. I'm not kidding, there's

no economic related concept that can't be answered with scarcity. Can't get a job? Scarcity. Not

enough money? How does scarcity sound to you? That diamond ring you wanted to buy costing 

thousands of unnecessary dollars? SCARCITY. I think you get the point

You know, we spent plenty of times in our class subtly poking fun at what our teacher Mr. Kern

erroneously says or types out because he's a lovable marshmallow and it makes our curriculum

literally so memorable. How about, in a supply and demand curve, we can measure how strong or 

lenient demand or supply can be by measuring its elasticity. Resources that are luxuries tend to be

elastic while necessary goods are inelastic. And there's a way to solve this elasticity coefficient

number, which is Quantity over Price, not Price over Quantity. It's ok, we still love you Kern.

Consider this. Our econ class teaches us to be more informed citizens in the future so we can be

overly bothered by the cheap gas prices, since they can cause lots more trouble for the entire

nation. For example, low gas prices may be forcing towns that process gas to suffer unemployment

thanks to the much too cheap business not supplying enough income for the employees. The

real trouble with this is that the entire world is suffering from this really troublesome
oversupply of gas. What? Too much gas? What's the problem?? Well, there aren't many countries

living with lack of gas, since the world powers have too much to deal with. In essence, this causes

so many problems than we can, as consumers who just like full, cheap tanks, to realize. 

Even though we talk about what we've learned in this class, that kind of would be a lot and is not a 

very efficient use of time. What matters is that you know what's stuck to us, and that idea is

easily very subjective. Just like a person's utils, or satisfaction from consuming some good, differs

relative to say how much a person values a donut (for some of us they value them with their life), 

you can't pin point what are the definite answers each person will have. For me, I really love all of 

the lessons and how it applies to the grander scheme of our nation. Besides finally understanding 

how what fiscal and monetary policy is and how it helps our nation, there was nothing that

I found more interesting than what really happened in the 2008 Great Recession and the ever-so

notorious stock market crash. Just finding out about how mistakes along the way like people being

greedy with mortgages and bubbles crashing to cause the downfall is so interesting to me.

However, that's not the most important thing I learned in this economics class. Did you catch the answer earlier? What? C'mon I even typed it all out nice and clear for you. Oh. Was that not very  clear? Okay, well, if you just read the first letter of each line in the above paragraphs of wonderful economics fluff, you'll see what really matters in this economic world, and it should really make sense. 

There's no point asking me what I want to learn in the coming weeks of even more economics knowledge, because the answer is pretty obvious. Everything, the answer is everything. Hope you've all learned a wonderful lesson today: It's that my blogposts have too many words and that I just like economics a lot and someone should really take away my laptop from me.

Who's DaaJones?

I've learned a lot of things this 9 weeks, but I'm gonna point out some of the most important ones.

1) Scarcity is always the answer. If there is ever a question on why a store couldn't produce this, or why a person can only buy so many things; the answer is always scarcity. Scarcity means that people have unlimited wants but limited resources. This means a choice must be made. The only time scarcity isn't the answer is with oil.

2) It is not a good thing that gas is cheap. When I started Ekernomics I loved when gas prices were low, but now I know that low gas prices are not something to celebrate. Gas prices are so low right now because there is a surplus in oil all over the world. Since there is so much the price has gone down and has made smaller oil businesses have to close down and/or lay off their workers because they can not afford to pay them.

3) Everything is affected by supply and demand. Every product has an equilibrium price but depending on certain factors the demand and supply graphs can shift. Factors such as: consumer income, tastes, substitutes, future expectations, and number of consumers can all affect the demand of a product. Government regulations, future expectations, number of sellers, and cost of inputs can all affect the supply of a product. Why did heelies go out of style? Because the demand was low so the supply decreased until heelies stopped being made. Why are buffalo wings always so expensive on Super Bowl weekend? Because the company knew that more wings would be bought during the Super Bowl so they increased the price.

4) Utils are the only unit of measurement I care about. Utils are a unit used to qualify the satisfaction and happiness a person gets from a product; this differs from person to person. I get a huge amount of utils from eating a donut, while someone else might get none (but I don't know how that would even be possible, donuts are amazing).

5) Real GDP is where it's at. GDP is the value of all final goods and services produced in a country over a period of time (usually a year). Nominal GDP doesn't adjust for inflation so it's not a good measure to use. This is why most economist use real GDP which is adjusted for inflation.

6) The business cycle isn't actually a cycle it's just a squiggly line. The business cycle shows the level of real output vs. time on a graph that results in a curvy line. This line shows the peak and the expansion that it takes to get to it; and also the trough and the recession it takes to get to it.

7) "What's in your wallet" doesn't actually matter. The amount of money you have right now doesn't matter what really matters is how much purchasing power you have. This is the amount of goods and services that can be bought by a given amount of money.

8) There are two main economic policies: fiscal and monetary. Fiscal policy is where the government uses taxes and government spending to control the speed of the economy. An increase in government spending and a decrease in taxes will result in more consumer spending and vice versa. Monetary policy is when the Federal Reserve (the Fed) increases or decreases the money supply to control the speed of the economy. The Fed does this in three main ways: (1) reserve requirement, (2) discount rate, (3) open market operations (government bonds).

10) Janet Yellen controls the world. Well maybe not the world, but she definitely has some major control over our economy since she is the head of the Fed.

11) Joe Biden is our Vice President. He is currently our vice president. I would just like to point out I eventually go to this conclusion it just took me a few minutes.

And finally the most important thing I've learned this year

12) DaaJones is not a person, but actually Dow Jones one of the largest business and financial news companies in the world.

Now that we have gone over some important things that we have learned this year, I can't wait for what the next 9 weeks has to offer. I personally would like to know more about . . . well I guess anything because I can't think of anything about the economy I know even a little bit about to be able to ask to know more about.

Hock-enomic Part One: The Salaries

From the salaries of the players to the overpriced Slurpees you buy every game, hockey is certainly a money making business here in the U.S. and Canada. Forbes reports that although the average NHL player makes less than the average NBA or MLB player, he still makes a hefty salary of about 2.4 million a year. If you starting out as just a small fry who was either just drafted into the NHL or came up from the minors, you still have basically a guaranteed starting salary of about 450 thousand, and many start out at significantly higher amounts. Take Dallas'  own Valeri Nichushkin, for example. At age 18, he was drafted by the Stars and was immediately signed on for a 3 year contract of 2.125 million per year.

Nichushkin, a rookie at the time, scores a goal against the Colorado Avalanche.

However, not everything lies in the hands of the management and contract-makers though. Once drafted, the players usually sign some sort of agreement in regards to when exactly they plan on playing. After the signed "intent to play" agreement ends, the player could arguably considered a free agent. This instance is not as rare as it would appear, and happened recently to Chicago Blackhawks draftee Kevin Hayes. Hayes,  a 6'5 225 pound center, was all set to play for the Blackhawks. He, like many players, opted to get 4 years of college hockey experience before heading into the crazy arena that encompasses NHL hockey. Over those four years, the Hawks one two Stanley Cups and were on their way to another. Although the opportunity for Hayes to play for the Hawks was tempting, he backed out of the deal. Although he didn't explicitly state it, Hayes used his own purchasing power of being a free agent to some degree when selecting a team to play for. Instead of getting paid less to be a part of a GREAT team, he opted for a better salary with a struggling (at least at that time) team, the New York Rangers.

The face of satisfaction. 

That's One Small Budget for NASA, One Giant Leap for Mankind

You know when I first started writing this blogpost, it was essentially all just science and no economics. And then it dawned on me, why don't I just talk about the economics of science? Perfect.

One of the best things about space exploration is that it always manages to surprise you. With the constantly improving technology being done over at NASA, us puny humans are able to journey and experience all sorts of wonderful things outside of our little terrestrial abode. One of the most well-known areas of technological advancement in our space program is the International Space Station, or the ISS.

I've always thought those solar panels looked like Kit Kats.

What's brilliant about the ISS is that the station has a long history of astronauts from a number of countries who collaborate to improve not only space exploration, but also life for humans, in general.
And honestly, what's the opportunity cost for not funding space exploration? Oh that's right, just a lot more money spent staying on Earth, probably going towards more unproductive things. The government is in charge of fiscal policy, which includes dividing up funding towards the various government institutions and many other things. NASA gets about less than 3/4 of ONE percent of the total budget to be able to research and perform experiments every year. The work these scientists do goes far beyond building rockets that sometimes fail. Do you know LED's, water filters, artificial limbs, and memory foam were all created by NASA with the help of businesses? It's not just the research the program does by itself, but also with other entities in the nation that help improve the life of people everywhere.

I don't know about you but I kinda like the things made by NASA

 NASA does its best to improve efficiency in technology that humans use everyday, while also innovating new ideas with the small, high-tech businesses. By working with these disadvantaged businesses, NASA can improve the overall health of the nation by bringing attention and aid to small businesses who in turn help to advance technology that will improve the United States's competitiveness in the global market. And it's not just research done on Earth to benefit humanity, there are all sorts of incentives and advantages to performing research in space, like zero-gravity agriculture and robotics. The research being done on the ISS ranges from technology, earth and space science, biotechnology, and the physical sciences. And even more, what's most interesting about those last two is how applicable they are right now.

Astronaut Scott Kelly recently returned from almost one whole year in space, which involved 3 space walks and work on over 400 different investigative experiments. However, what makes him unique -- or rather, what makes him actually very not-unique -- is that he has a twin brother, who is both an astronaut and former resident of the ISS.

Is it just me, or are you seeing two of the same guy?

Since these pairs of twins are, by definition, genetically identical, NASA is taking advantage of the fact they can practically use the same guy twice but under different circumstances. What I mean is, NASA is doing a very unique twin study on a pair of not-unique people to examine the subtle effects by space on after-space life.

Why is this important?  BECAUSE IT'S REALLY COOL. Well, besides that, can you imagine all of the advantages of being able to study these twins who've undergone two unique experiences in space? We can be completely confident in saying that there is a pretty definite scarcity in genetically identical twins who happen to also both be astronauts. I don't know about you, but the chance of that happening is prettttyyyyyy low. Trust me. 

By studying both Scott and Mark Kelly, NASA will have the ability to examine both humans's responses to space flight and the molecular changes that occur in a human body under zero-gravity duress. You just can't really get the chance to test these things if space travel wasn't so possible. 

So, it's a pretty big deal for NASA to be present in our lives, because NASA is indeed present in all our lives thanks to the research and technology they do to make humans better off a species. So, if the government is reading this right now, you better think twice about that fiscal year budget you're writing right now.

There's plenty more space things I could tell you myself, but why don't you refer to each of these links to find out about them yourself.

Illumi-Naughty Business

Backwards messages on records.
Faking the moon landing.
AIDS being created in a secret government laboratory.
What do these things have in common?

They're all TRUE.

No, I kid, I kid. Actually, these things are all conspiracy theories, something that I am totally fascinated by. Conspiracy theories tend to range in believability and cover quite a few different topics: for example, there are conspiracy theorists who believe that we don't really know what happened in the JFK assassination. Pretty reasonable, right?

Well there are also conspiracy theorists who believe that many of the world leaders are actually lizard people from another planet who are infiltrating society incognito. That one might be a little further outside the realm of possibility.

WAKE UP AMERICA

Anyway, because economics are apparently part of pretty much anything, many conspiracy theories revolve around the economy, whether local or global. One conspiracy that is believed to go all the way to the top of every nation? The Illuminati, a secret society that is a branch of the New World Order, has its own "invisible hand" in the global economy, and its grip is tighter than ever. 

Illuminati - I mean, Federal Reserve - Chair Janet Yellen looking pleased with her nefarious deeds

So, what is the Illuminati doing to our economy, and why are they doing it?

The Illuminati is:

1. Printing extra money 

2. Manipulating value of crucial industries like oil

3. Deliberate contraction of credit, also called "credit squeeze"

all to bring about economic collapse and rise from the ashes of the ruined world to usher in the era of the New World Order.

Join today and you too can be a part of our impending doom.

So, is all this really happening? Maybe. Maybe not. But let's say it was, and the Illuminati really is provoking economic collapse. With their current plan, would they be effective? Let's analyze their methods using the skills we've learned in Mr. Kern's economics class, because I'm sure this is definitely the kind of work Mr. Kern had in mind when he signed up to teach us economics.

Step 1: Printing extra money

Inflation is a word people love to toss around. Many people aren't totally sure what inflation really means, but if you're reading this blog post you're either in economics class or a huge nerd, so I'm going to take for granted that all of you do. While some inflation is healthy in an economy because it generally indicates a fast-moving circular flow and high level of consumer spending demand, too much inflation can result in very low purchasing power and lack of access to goods for the average citizen. Inflation that stems from the additional printing of money is even worse than high circular-flow-related inflation because it results in less purchasing power without showing any healthy levels of consumer spending. Excessive money printing without the real GDP or gold reserves to match it is detrimental to an economy. For example, take a post-WW1 Germany. Germany was attempting to repay massive debts to much of Europe while dealing with its own reconstruction, so it printed money at such a rate that it became essentially worthless. People in Germany even took to burning stacks of paper money in the winter, because it was more valuable as kindling than as money. Should the Illuminati have agents printing and distributing extra money in secret, over time it could tank an economy due to the harmful inflation that results, making vital resources available solely to the nations' elite. 

Careful friend, those could be Reptilian dollars.

Step 2: Manipulating value of crucial industries like oil

There is a clear downward trend in the oil industry at this point in time. So-called "experts" say that this is due to a surplus of an inelastic good, which means that there's more of it than we really need, because we aren't all suddenly buying more gas now that prices are low. It's not like stocking up on Pop-Tarts at Costco because they were having a sale, you can't keep gasoline in your pantry for months on end. Gas prices could certainly be from this surplus, OR maybe that's just what The Man wants you to believe. We've seen this year that the economy gets manipulated pretty easily, often without our knowledge. I mean, how many of us were really aware of Supreme Overlord Janet Yellen until fairly recently? Oil would be a good industry for the Illuminati to target because it is a lynch pin in the global economy. If the Illuminati were artificially raising or lowering oil prices, it would seriously effect nations like Russia, which has clearly suffered from oil's diminishing value. 

Gets picked last at the Illuminati Summer Fun Kickball Game and has his economy tanked for the good of the New World Order? Poor Puty just can't win.

Step 3: Deliberate contraction of credit, or "credit squeeze"

Monetary policy affects the interest and availability of loans. Generally, there are economic indicators of why interest rates are increasing or decreasing, and monetary policy tends to change in small stages so as not to upset the economy with drastic moves. A credit squeeze, however, involves a reduction in the availability of credit separate from a rise in national interest rates. In this situation, credit availability and interest rates no longer have the relationship that is expected by consumers and businesses. If the Illuminati were to manipulate credit availability within the system rather than having it rise or fall based on interest rates, it would confuse the economy, allow financial institutions to fail, slow economic growth, and raise unemployment.

Once the economy is tanked, the Illuminati's next order of business is to come up with an easier hand signal, because having to ask a buddy to be your third hand every time is starting to get awkward.

So seems to me that, if the New World Order really is plotting to destroy the economy, their current plan would do a pretty good job of it. Why would anyone want to destroy the world's economy? Because, once we are ravaged by war and economic turmoil, the New World Order can rise as a united front and we will have no choice but to accept their reign. 

The question remains: is there any proof that any of this is actually happening? Um, excuse you, do you even get it at all? You don't need "proof" for a conspiracy theory. All you need is circumstantial evidence, too much free time, and a healthy dose of paranoia. 

Illuminati? Confirmed. 

My Diet for the Next Four Years

Every person knows about ramen noodles, whether its your after school snack or your entire food supply at college. They are a super easy to make and food that everyone loves.

Recently the demand for ramen noodles has quickly increased in New York. Not only has the sales for the famous Maruchan ramen noodles brand increased, New York also has specialty ramen noodle stores that usually people wait in line for hours. 

Maruchan instant ramen noodles are a famous brand in the U.S. with flavors such as: chicken, beef, pork, and shrimp. Some people might be hesitant when buying these since they are instant noodles with flavorings like shrimp, which is one of the least popular. This low consumer confidence could lead to a decrease in demand and ultimately a decrease in productivity or extinction of that flavor. People are usually less worried about chicken or beef since those are normal broth flavors. Maruchan might want to consider this low consumer confidence and rethink their allocative resources. Are the amount of choices being efficient? If shrimp isn't bring enough revenue in as chicken then maybe they could discontinue the shrimp flavor to be more efficient and make more of the well liked chicken flavoring. 

Maruchan is also a well liked brand for how cheap their ramen noodles are, most stores sell a 12 pack for $2. Maruchan is a great food for a cheap price. This low price means the consumer will have more money to put back into our economy through consumer spending.

One last advantage of Maruchan ramen noodles is that it takes about 3 minutes to make and the only thing not included is the water. Maruchan ramen noodles are perfect for people on a low budget and want a non time consuming meal to make.