Teaching of Economics
Economics Movie Theatre
Thanks to everyone who wrote in and suggested film titles that have a resonance to economics and business issues. I will be writing about several of them in the forthcoming edition of Latte magazine (details available here).
Here is a selection of some of the movies that people recommended, I am sure we can build it further! Please add your comments! Several of the movies have specific clips available through You Tube. And the movie trailer websites are often great for showing to students as a taster!
read more...»Who Runs Britain?
Robert Peston the sparky and colourful Business Editor at the BBC has a new book out very shortly - ‘Who Runs Britain?: The Super-rich and How They’re Changing Our Lives.’ The Amazon blurb says this
‘Who makes the decisions in this country? Who is the power behind the throne? Who’s really in charge? Let the BBC’s award winning Business Editor Robert Peston take you through the looking glass on a behind-the-scenes tour of Britain’s hidden power brokers and the reasons behind their rise.There’s a new elite in town - and it’s not who you might think.’
I am looking forward to reading this over half term. Ahead of publication Robert Peston answered questions for the Telegraph Online and there are several extracts from the book available on that website including this one about the power of hedge funds.
Jim O’Neill at the Keynes Society
Jim O’Neill, the Head of Global Economic Research at Goldman Sachs has been called a ‘rock-star economist’ and has a legendary status in the City. Perhaps the finest global currency economist in the world over the last ten years - the Mancunian economist (a mad keen soccer fan) has been at the forefront of developing new ideas as to the future of the world economy driven by the rise to prominence of the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China). He is speaking to the Eton Keynes (Economics) Society on Thursday 7th February. If there are any Economics teachers living locally who might want to pop along, please get in touch and I will supply details. Given the turbulence in the global markets this promises to be a superb discussion.
Rogue Trader
There will be lots of coverage this week of the activities of the rogue trader at Societe Generale. Now could be an ideal time to have a look at the 1999 film Rogue Trader starring Ewan McGregor and Anna Friel! This is a lively and pacy film surrounding the trading activities of Nick Leeson, the trader who helped to bring down the venerable Baring’s Bank in 1995. This trailer is a good taster and many of the themes in the film will be eerily familiar in the current day!
I checked on Amazon last night and the DVD of the film is available for £4.97 - a bargain!
Tim Harford at the LSE
The ‘Undercover Economist’ Tim Harford is giving a public lecture on his new book ‘The Logic of Life’ at the London School of Economics on Wednesday 6 February starting at 6.30pm. He will be joined in discussion by Hamish McRae from the Independent. Entry is free on a first come first served basis. School commitments stop me from attending this time but I am sure it will be an entertaining and informative occasion.
LSE Department of Economics public lecture: From teenage sex to the scourge of racism, Tim Harford explains why economics can provide the answers other disciplines cannot reach. Tim Harford is the author of The Undercover Economist, is a member of the Financial Times editorial board and writes a regular column for the FT magazine.
Date and Time: 6 February 2008 at 6:30 pm
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
Venue:
Old Theatre, London School of Economics & Political Science
Houghton St
London
WC2A 2AE
The LSE public lecture programme is an outstanding series and nearly all of the lectures are free of charge to attend.
Logic of Life reviews and book forum
There is a very positive review of Tim Harford’s new book ‘The Logic of Life’ in today’s New York Times.
‘Mr. Harford has a knack for explaining economic principles and problems in plain language and, even better, for making them fun. He loves to overturn conventional thinking on matters as small as playing a poker hand and as large as the reasons behind the Industrial Revolution, which have nothing to do, he maintains, with a so-called entrepreneurial culture in Protestant Northern Europe. It all boiled down, he writes, to “a calculated and deliberate response to high British wages and cheap British coal,” which led inevitably to steam power and labor-saving technology.’
The rest of the review can be read here
David Smith interviews Tim Harford in the Sunday Times. The interview is available on David’s blog
Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution has started an online discussion forum chewing over aspects of the book - it is already full of lively comment. You can find it here.
Discussion of Chapter 2 on Game Theory at Marginal Revolution is now underway! *Monday 28th January)
RES Competition 2008
Young Economist of the Year 2008
The Royal Economic Society and tutor2u are delighted to announce a competition to find the Young Economist of the Year 2008. This essay competition is open to all students studying for A Levels offered by UK Exam Boards (in any subject) or the International Baccalaureate. Entries from the UK and Overseas are encouraged. The RES is particularly keen to encourage students to enter the competition who are in the first year of their studies. In 2007 over 750 entries were submitted, with Zoe Hart from Colchester RGS taking the first prize.
The winner of Young Economist of the Year 2008 will win £1,000, with two runners-up each receiving £500. The title to be used for essay entries is as follows:
“Which economic idea or policy has the most power to improve our lives?”
The following introductory guidance is provided for students and teachers:
1. Essay length: 1,000 - 2,000 words
2. Deadline: Complete entries should be submitted via email by 10.00 p.m. Monday 12 May 2008 or by post bearing a postmark of 12 May 2008 or earlier. The winner will be announced in early August 2008.
3. Entries must be word processed – the preferred format is Microsoft Word.
4. All sources must be properly acknowledged
5. All entries will be judged by a team of practicing Economics teachers appointed by the RES. A shortlist of final entries will be submitted to a two-person Judging Panel of senior Economists who will determine the prize-winners.
6. All short-listed entrants (and their teachers) will be invited to the prize ceremony at the Royal Economic Society Annual Lecture in November 2008
Further details about the Competition will be available from the tutor2u website shortly. Promotional materials are also being mailed to economics departments at schools and colleges in the UK and overseas. As in 2007, a dedicated section of the tutor2u website will be created which will include examples of short listed entries from 2007 and helpful guidance from the 2007 judging panel. This will be live from 1 February 2008.
2007 winner Zoe Hart (Colchester RGS) receives her prize from Nick Stern:
Evan Davis at the Keynes Society
Upper School was packed on Thursday night for a meeting of the Keynes society, this week’s speaker was Evan Davis, the BBC economics correspondent and presenter of the popular TV show “Dragons Den”.
A gifted communicator on the economy
Upper School was packed on Thursday night for a meeting of the Keynes society, this week’s speaker was Evan Davis, the BBC economics correspondent and presenter of the popular TV show “Dragons Den”.
Evan Davis gave a personal overview of the current economic cycle and said that there were innate cyclical mood swings in all modern economies. History repeats itself and the recent property bubble is no exception since rapidly rising prices justify expectations and drive demand higher still leading to an overshooting of the market.
The latest macroeconomic cycle has last over ten years and has been lengthened by two key forces, firstly the internet and secondly the emergence of China as the world’s dominant manufacturer of goods. The result has been deflation in the prices of many of the goods we buy – from iPods to DVD players, from clothing to furniture. But we have also seen a significant rise in the prices of many services such as restaurant meals and the fees charged by plumbers and decorators.
Chinese deflation is now coming to an end as the prices of commodities are surging throughout the world. The result is that interest rates have had to rise and this has put the squeeze on those who have borrowed huge sums to enter the property market. A housing slowdown or a recession is inevitable and this will be an important factor behind the coming downturn.
A recession or a slump is not all bad news for the economy needs to re-balance itself not least in terms of people raising the amount that they save. The recent fall in the value of sterling against the Euro and the US dollar may be the saving grace for the British economy during this downturn, since a lower exchange rate will boost exports and give manufacturing industry a welcome boost.
We were yet again fortunate to listen to a speaker who is extremely well informed of current affairs as well as possessing a talent for speaking engagingly and informatively. It was also pleasing to see a number of students from other schools in attendance, as well as our own, demonstrating a shared enthusiasm to benefit from the experience of a well-regarded public figure, an enjoyable evening was had by all.
The next meeting of the Keynes Society is on Thursday 7 February when our speaker will be Mr Jim O’Neill, Chief Global Economist at Goldman Sachs. On Thursday 21st February, the speaker is Mr James Caan from Dragon’s Den.
The Yes Men
I have a pile of business and economics-related DVDs on my desk and after a pre-season Hockey tour to Barcelona I thought it was about time to make a start through them. The purpose is to have a look through some of the many suggestions that have come my way after asking for ideas for DVDs and clips from TV series that we might be able to use in the economics classroom.
The Yes Men
'The Yes Men agree their way into the fortified compounds of commerce, ask questions, and then smuggle out the stories of their hijinks to provide a public glimpse at the behind-the-scenes world of business. In other words, the Yes Men are team players... but they play for the opposing team.'
Yes Men was released on DVD in 2005 and runs to 85 minutes. The subsequent collapse of the Doha trade talks a couple of years ago does not make this documentary film any less relevant - it is built around three spoof conference presentations by Andy and Mike, two anti-globalisation protestors who have successfully duped conference organisers into inviting them to speak on behalf of the World Trade Organisation!
In Finland they unleash onto an unsuspecting crowd of academics a revolutionary way for corporate management to maintain direct oversight of their workers - I wont include a spolier here, suffice to day that your sixth formers will love the idea and it could easily be used as an graphic illustration of how to avoid diseconomies of scale in a world out oursourcing and multinational manufacturing! http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo-1W_8otS4
In the United States, the duo are invited by an Economics professor to outline the WTO's revolutionary plans for re-processing digested food and giving it to starving people in the third world. The reaction of the student-audience is jaw-breakingly funny!
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=MkTG6sGX-Ic&feature=related
Finally in Australia, the Yes Men announce a radical change of policy for the WTO to an audience of journalists and trade experts and the news instantly finds its way into question time at the Canadian Parliament.
This DVD could sit easily in any lesson on the aims and policies of the WTO and, although it runs to 83 minutes, it is easy to introduce - focusing on the three main spoofs - leaving out much of the filming of the Yes men in transit and setting up their presentations.
Good fun but worrying that people can so easily be duped.
Details of their latest escapades can be found here: http://www.theyesmen.org/en/hijinks
