Economics Christmas panto - Cinderella 2011
I have set my AS and A2 Economics classes a Christmas task, to write a panto script! The Story so far is in the attached word document - it tells the story of Cinderella (aka the UK economy) and the hard times she is facing, with a Wicked Stepmother and two Ugly Sisters to struggle against. But Cinders has some friends, and just as she is in despair, her Fairy Godmother, Buttons and Prince Charming (Supply-side and Demand-side fiscal policy and Quantitative Easing), turn up to rescue her.
The task for the students is to write the script for the rest of the story, as each of her friends describe how they can help, and as she decides which of them can help her to live happily ever after.
My A2 classes spent the last two lessons of term writing and acting out their scripts, with some truly memorable results! My AS classes have been set this as a Christmas task, and I look forward to some great performances to come in January - and I don’t see why this couldn’t be used as an early January lesson.
If I was setting the task now, I would probably insist that they should include at least 3 direct references to the data in Geoff’s great Prospects for the UK Economy in 2012 powerpoint
Cinderella_-_chrismas_lessons_panto_2011-1.doc
The True Cost of Christmas
It’s here! PNC Wealth Management, have produced their 28th annual index of the true cost of Christmas, calculating the cost of giving of all the gifts in the Twelve Days of Christmas, and then the change in the price compared to last year, to give the annual rate of inflation for Christmas. This year they have an animated train ride that takes you through a snowy landscape, with various games on the way - the maids a-milking one is brilliant! The journey, and the links to information about how the index has fluctuated over the years and where on earth they find the prices of swans a-swimming or lords a-leaping needs a bit of investigation before you introduce it to a class, but is worth it and great fun for a Christmas lesson.
What do all these people have in common?
Read on for an interesting starter question which will hopefully stimulate some interesting class discussions around this topical issue…
read more...»Who has become the first major company to back the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protests in the US?
This will be today’s starter question for my Economics classes- and it’s an interesting one, as whilst this company expounds the ideals of independence and freedom it’s actually owned by one of the world’s largest consumer companies- who swiftly distanced themselves from the announcement
read more...»The Principles of Economics - translated…...
Many thanks to one of my students from last year (thank you, Henry!) who has just attended his first undergraduate Economics lecture and enjoyed this YouTube clip. It shows Yoram Bauman, self-appointed Stand-up Economist, making a presentation to the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) in 2007, in which he translates the Ten Principles of Economics.
Five minutes of good fun, at the expense of economists who take themselves too seriously, which you and your students might enjoy as a contrast to the gloom of impending meltdown - although I wouldn’t want to spoil the fun of their first lecture at university.
read more...»Low Cost Flying in song…
A class discussion this morning about travel within the EU lead us to consider the change in the number of carriers over the last 10 years and the oligopolistic nature of the market to come. The changes that have taken place are as a result of mergers and takeover that have taken place in the market over this time and the over capacity in the industry. As I prepare to crush onto my low cost Irish carrier over the coming days, I am grateful to Will for finding this entertaining song for me…
read more...»Government spending and Cost Benefit Analysis - the bottom line
Thought-provoking quotation from astronaut Alan Shepard, who became the first American in space in 1961:
“It’s a very sobering feeling to be up in space and realise that one’s safety factor was determined by the lowest bidder on a government contract.”
Fancy playing a prank on your class today?
Well, it’s April 1st, and so that means time to see if the students fall for my April Fool news story!
read more...»A big society joke
Why is Big Society Cluedo easier than normal Cluedo?...
read more...»Wildcard Wednesday (2) - isotype
This second Wildcard Wednesday extension activity post draws inspiration from a fascinating exhibition on isotype that I went to at the V&A in London over half term .
Wildcard Wednesdays! Top 10 stories in pictures
This week’s Wildcard Wednesday extension activity uses the excellent Telegraph ‘Top 10 stories…in pictures’ series as a basis. This series aims to find ten images that represent the top stories in a particular theme over the past year, and my favourites are the economics stories, the banking stories and the retail stories from 2010.
These stories can be used as a starter activity, where students can guess the story behind the picture (excellent for revision!). You can then develop the activity in various ways, but my choice would be to ask students to find images to represent their top 10 stories for a theme of your (or their!) choice. These themes could be tied in to whatever topic you’re teaching, from labour markets to monopoly. Students could then present their images and fellow students have to guess the stories behind the images. I’m sure there are lots of ways in which this could be developed!
Introducing Wildcard Wednesdays - Economist Competition
I haven’t yet decided whether to permanently name the Wednesday blog entry ‘Wildcard Wednesday’, ‘Wacky Wednesday’, ‘Worldwide Wednesday’ or ‘www.ednesday’. This week, however, I couldn’t resist opting for Wildcard Wednesday, having seen the latest caption competition for the Economist. If you’re keen to get published in the Economist, even if it’s just for a one-liner (Geoff should be good at this!), then this regular competition is just the ticket. This week’s competition details can be found here. You need to make sure that you make your entry by midnight on Wednesday, in order for it to be registered. The winning entry will be published alongside the image in this coming Friday’s print edition of the Economist. I think this is a really fun opportunity for both teachers and students; no prize money, just oodles of kudos!
Happiness and Prosperity and the Equation that Links the Two
Happiness or Prosperity. How can we tell if a country is happy? Does it matter?
read more...»Chinese exports mini-fact
The Christmas edition of The Week magazine has a selection of Statistics of the Year which have been published during 2010 and I like this one from Prospect Magazine - China now exports as much every six hours as it did in the whole of 1978. Could be used to illustrate the speed of growth of trade with the rest of the world?
read more...»Breathing fresh life into board games
How timely - here are some super ideas to remix those tired boardgames stuck in the games cupboard or loft.
On the first day of Christmas -
There are lots of aspects of economics in this little story from the Independent on Wednesday 1st December. The final section of the report into the effects of the early snow falls is about Christmas tree shortages, and links to this BBC story about Nordmann fir trees, and the two together contain several references to the A level syllabus:
read more...»Pull the other one…...
Obviously, government intervention to correct market failure is a good thing. A new Pyrotechnics Articles (Safety) Regulations introduced this year reinforced laws bans the sale of explosive items to children. One result is that under-16’s cannot buy indoor or outdoor fireworks - and while this may give retailers a headache as they have to check the ID of their younger customers, it is done with the intention of avoiding the negative externalities of teenagers messing about with fireworks and injuring either themselves or others in the run-up to bonfire night.
But is banning sales of Christmas crackers to under-16’s also necessary? Apparently so, according to this article from the Daily Telegraph, so households up and down the land had better review the Health and Safety implications of their Christmas lunch tables, and decide whether the crackers represent a demerit good that they should avoid. Or is this an example of the Law of Unintended Consequences taking effect?
Lehman Artifacts
.... some of these would look good in the economics department common room!
Two Creative Ads!
I love my iPad but I wouldn’t go this far!
read more...»Wealth no barrier to world cup success
Footy flu is almost with us. A hat tip to Peter O’Sullivan for spotting this research piece on the world cup from the team at PWC.
EU Quality of life
Since 1998, the European Union Regional Policy unit has been collecting data on the happiness or otherwise of its citizens in 75 cities. It reported in 2004, 2007 and now 2010 with its ‘Survey on perception of quality of life in 75 European cities’. Who would have thought that our Newcastle is the third most satisfied city in Europe with its provision of healthcare?
Financial Reform Bill - what goes around, comes around
A look at the bills set out in the Queen’s Speech yesterday shows a handful which will be of interest to students of economics, including the Office of Budget Responsibility bill, the Postal Services bill, the Welfare Reform Bill, the Energy and Green Economy bill and the Pensions and Savings Bill - a look through the list gives an opportunity to analyse the micro and macroeconomic impact that each might have.
read more...»Chat up lines for economists
With tongue firmly in cheek! And with the help of students at a renowned London centre of economics excellence!
read more...»Advertising slogans quiz
A bit of light relief for my exam groups - a quick quiz of thirty advertising slogans for different products. The answers are in the attached word document.
Quiz Handout
Advertising_slogans_quiz.student.docx
Quiz answers
Slogans_quiz_answers.docx
Build a Tower - Build a Team
I haven’t come across this particular Marshmallow Challenge before (there is the standard one about eating as many as you can in 2 minutes or stuffing your mouth - diminishing returns?) But it could be a terrific exercises to use with Economics and Business students at any point during the school year! Here is a TED talk on some of the surprising results from around the world - and there are more details available here from this blog.
A Fun Way to Get People to Obey Speed Limits
A lovely idea to nudge people to obey speed limits!
read more...»Freakonomics - the movie
Not an April Fool - a Freakonomics documentary is scheuled to air at some film festivals in the USA this spring. Details are now on IMDB and I will post further information if and when it becomes available in the UK.
Erotic economics
We’ve seen various attempts at tax avoidance before, with the likes of the big debate about whether Jaffa cakes are truly biscuits or cakes , but today another “interesting” example appeared in the news here.
The Erotic Cinema in Belgium claimed it should benefit from the reduced 6% rate of VAT (instead of the normal 21%) paid by cinema owners, who get a discount under law to promote cultural activities. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was rejected by the ECJ!
Would you like a personalised pothole?
Local councils all over the country are despairing over how they are to find the money needed to repair the cavernous pot holes that have opened up after the snow, ice and rain this winter. Insurance companies are starting to talk about the need to raise their premiums to cover the number of claims that have been made for repairs to damage caused to cars falling down these holes – at least two of my students have suffered from burst tyres and other problems as they learn the hard way how dangerous the holes can be. Some of the wilder estimates have suggested that it might take almost as long to repair all the roads as it will to pay off the fiscal deficit. But a small town in Germany has a different solution; they are inviting people to sponsor a pot hole, and so pay for its repairs. For just 50 euros you could have your name stamped into the tar repairing holes such as the beauty pictured above, which is in Niederzimmern in the Weimar area of Germany.
Statistics blog - an econometrician’s dream!
Admittedly the title for this entry is not an instant attention grabber, but I came across this excellent blog on discussions on statistics. Andrew Gelman (from Columbia University) and Chris Blattman focuses on statistics in the social sciences pointing out potential abuse of stats or interesting statistical points.
Here are two entries that caught my attention this week
- Graph of the week from the Wall Street Journal
- Quirky point on a different way to interpret Obama’s economic recovery plans
