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2016-01-19 DRAFT--Section Exercises for January 25/26: Econ 1: Spring 2016: U.C. Berkeley

Section Exercises for January 25/26: Econ 1: Spring 2016: U.C. Berkeley

1) The economy of the university town of Avicenna (if you wish, cf.: Peter Beagle (1986): The Folk of the Air http://amzn.to/1RxRFQJ (New York: Del Rey: 0345337824)) produces two and only two commodities: yoga lessons, and triple lattes. The economy is able to produce any of the following combinations of yoga and lattes per day:

a) Using the data in the table, graph the daily production possibilities frontier (ppf) of the Avicenna economy. Put triple lattes (“TL”) on the vertical axis.

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b) Does the principle of “increasing opportunity cost” hold in this town’s economy? Think about what happens to the opportunity cost of TLs—measured in units of yoga lessons (“YL”)—as the amount of resources devoted to producing TLs increases. Explain briefly.

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c) On your graph, pick and label one point that is: (i) an impossible and unattainable level of YL and TL production, (ii) an attainable but inefficient level of YL and TL production, (iii) an efficient level of production of YL and TL, (iv) a value-maximizing level of production of YL and TL if a TL is worth $2.50 and a YL is worth $10; (v) a value-maximizing level of production of YL and TL if a TL is worth $1 and a YL is worth $10; and (vi) a value-maximizing level of production of YL and TL if a TL is worth $5 and a YL is worth $10.

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2) An overweight economics professor (OEP) consumes two and only two foodstuffs a day: kale chips (“KC”) and crème brûlée (CB). He is made equally happy by consuming any of the following combinations:

a) Using the data in the table, graph the daily consumption combinations that make the OEP equally happy. Put servings of kale chips (“KC”) on the vertical axis.

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b) Does the principle of “diminishing marginal utility” hold for this OEP’s psychology? Think about what happens to the attractiveness of KCs—measured in units of crème brûlée (“CB”)—as the amount of CB consumed increases. Explain briefly.

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3) The economy of the university town of Old Stick, home of Crony Capitalism University, produces two and only two commodities: social network startups (“SNS”), and triple lattes (TL). The economy is able to produce any of the following combinations of SNSs and TLs per day:

a) Using the data in the table, graph the daily production possibilities frontier (ppf) of the Old Stick economy. Put triple lattes (“TL”) on the vertical axis.

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b) Does the principle of “increasing opportunity cost” hold in this town’s economy? Think about what happens to the opportunity cost of SNSs—measured in units of TLs—as the amount of resources devoted to producing TLs increases. Explain briefly.

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c) On your graph, pick and label one point that is: (i) an impossible and unattainable level of SNS and TL production, (ii) an attainable but inefficient level of SNS and TL production, (iii) an efficient level of production of SNSs and TLs.

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Posted at 08:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Paul Krugman: Stagflation Predictions http://equitablegrowth.org/?p=9659

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Nick Bunker: Weekend Reading http://equitablegrowth.org/news/weekend-reading-27

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Michael Sippey: "tl;dr: you can’t do it today. and i think you should be able to..." https://medium.com/inside/blogging-on-medium-95f1546bcd7d

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Tim Duy: "The February employment report almost certainly means the Fed will no longer describe its policy intentions as 'patient' at the conclusion of the March FOMC meeting. And it also keep a June rate hike in play. But for June to move from 'in play' to 'it's going to happen,' I still feel the Fed needs a more on the inflation side..." http://economistsview.typepad.com/timduy/2015/03/patient-is-history.html

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Wisconsin Alumni Association: Forward Under 40: Trevon Logan ’99 http://www.uwalumni.com/awards/trevon-logan

Posted at 04:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mike Konczal: "There’s no evidence that we are having a technology renaissance right now, or that technology has contributed in a major way to the weak recovery, or that a skills gap or other educational factor is holding back employment, or that highly skilled workers are having a great time in the labor market..." http://www.nextnewdeal.net/rortybomb/what-are-robots-doing-rebalancing-our-inequality-intellectual-portfolio

Posted at 05:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Scott Lemieux: You Can't Spell "Reformicon" Without "Con" http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2015/03/cant-spell-reformicon-without-con)]

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NOAA: Elusive El Niño arrives http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2015/20150305-noaa-advisory-elnino-arrives.html

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Uwe Reinhardt: Medicare: A Seasoned Adult Conceived and Born in Sin http://equitablegrowth.org/?p=9638

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Ian Millhiser: "Carvin argued in 2012 that the tax credits are essential.... Scalia, Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito embraced Carvin.... Kennedy, to his credit, appears to be willing to accept the implications of the opinion he signed in 2012.... Scalia and Alito, by contrast... said one thing in 2012 when it was useful to opponents of the Affordable Care Act, but they are now willing to claim... [otherwise]. Carvin... is an advocate.... Scalia and Alito do not have the same excuse." http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/03/05/3630173/lawyer-telling-supreme-court-gut-obamacare-explained-lose-2012

Posted at 01:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ross Douthat: The Dilemmas of King v. Burwell http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/05/the-dilemmas-of-king-v-burwell <-- I can only classify this as yet another example of low-functioning sociopathology: Douthat's position is: "Congressional Republicans misbehave, so let's punish the red states' working poor and lower middle class!"

Posted at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Carola Binder: Federal Reserve Communication with Congress http://carolabinder.blogspot.com/2015/03/federal-reserve-communication-with.html

Posted at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mark Thoma (2009): Economist's View: Are Macroeconomic Models Useful? http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2009/08/are-macroeconomic-models-useful.html

Posted at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Scott Lemieux: "People say that having cameras in the courtroom would undermine the solemn seriousity of Supreme Court oral arguments.... Antonin Scalia might start ranting like a third-tier winger talk radio host! Stephen Breyer might start asking lengthy... hypotheticals that... don’t... go... anyplace! Michael Carvin might come off like a sexist bully!... The justices already play to an audience; there’s no neutral form of oral argument that televised proceedings would undermine." http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2015/03/best-case-televised-hearings

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Mark Thoma: Economist's View: Ten Years http://equitablegrowth.org/?p=9636

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Timothy B. Lee: NIMBYism Is Holding Back Silicon Valley and the American Economy http://equitablegrowth.org/?p=9634

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Matthew C. Klein: 2009 FOMC transcripts http://ftalphaville.ft.com/tag/2009-fomc-transcripts

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Sendhil Mullainathan: Departmental Seminar: Machine-learning in Economics http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/econ/type/week.html

Posted at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nicholas Bagley**: Deferring to the IRS http://equitablegrowth.org/?p=9632

Posted at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nick Bunker: Uncertainty means that the Fed should wait a while before shifting course. Given the current situation, this would mean waiting a while to raise interest rates and then rapidly raising rates when the time comes..." http://equitablegrowth.org/news/uncertain-nature-natural-rate-interest

Posted at 03:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Zachary Tracer: Hospital Stocks Surge After Justice Kennedy Criticizes Obamacare Challenge http://equitablegrowth.org/?p=9616

Posted at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"When 2,000 People Take a Daily Aspirin for Two Years: 1 Heart Attack is Prevented..." http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/27/upshot/can-this-treatment-help-me-theres-a-statistic-for-that.html

Posted at 09:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Michael Tomasky: "[Michael Schmidt's New York] Times piece... says that there were ‘new’ regulations that Clinton was supposed to abide by.... So if these new regulations went into effect after she left State, then what rule did she violate, exactly?.... The [New York] Times has some questions to answer to: Did you know that the new regs went into effect after Clinton left office? And if you didn’t, why not? And if you did, why did you leave that fact out of the story?..." http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/03/03/hillary-email-scandal-not-so-fast.html

Posted at 05:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Laura Tyson and Lenny Mendonca: "Historians [will] look back on... 'Obamacare' [as] encourag[ing] a wave of innovation that gradually tamed the spiraling costs of a dysfunctional system, even as millions of previously excluded Americans gained access to health insurance..." http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/america-health-care-reform-policy-innovation-by-laura-tyson-and-lenny-mendonca-2014-12

Posted at 05:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Martin Wolf: Riches and Perils of the Fossil-Fuel Age http://equitablegrowth.org/?p=9605

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Douglas A. Irwin: Tariff Incidence: Evidence from U.S. Sugar Duties, 1890-1930 http://equitablegrowth.org/?p=9601

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South Coast Portuguese Fish Chowder Recipe http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/south-coast-portuguese-fish-chowder-recipe.html

Posted at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Heather Boushey: Taxes and Fairness in an Era of High Inequality http://equitablegrowth.org/research/taxation-fairness-era-high-inequality

Posted at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tadich Grill: Hangtown Fry http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Hangtown-Oyster-Bacon-Omelette

Posted at 05:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Susan Jacoby: The First Victims of the First Crusade http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/opinion/sunday/the-first-victims-of-the-first-crusade.html

Posted at 05:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nick Bunker: "The U.S. tax code is now the main vehicle for social policy in retirement, college savings, and housing. How well has this ‘submerged state’ worked? At least in these three areas, the effectiveness of the tax code, via deductions and credits, is questionable..." http://equitablegrowth.org/news/unfulfilled-promise-tax-credits-economic-policy

Posted at 05:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Whet Mozer: On Trevon Logan: Chicago: Highly Segregated By Any Measure http://www.chicagomag.com/city-life/March-2015/Chicago-Highly-Segregated-By-Any-Measure

Posted at 04:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Blake Hounshell: "Some A+ whataboutism here" https://twitter.com/blakehounshell/status/572575250170437633 https://t.co/XLTB8dG1me http://t.co/ysoKaQmruQ

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Nick Bunker: The Steep Path Forward for Unionization http://equitablegrowth.org/news/steep-path-forward-unionization

Posted at 03:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Paul Krugman (2008): Stages of the Bubble http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/30/stages-of-the-bubble

Posted at 03:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Frances Coppola: The Failure of Macroeconomics http://equitablegrowth.org/?p=9574

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Richard Reeves: Wealth, Inequality, and the ‘Me? I’m Not Rich!’ Problem http://equitablegrowth.org/?p=9565

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Tim Duy: Game On http://equitablegrowth.org/?p=9563

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Tony Yates: One Wrong Sentance After Another https://longandvariable.wordpress.com/2015/02/28/one-wrong-sentance-after-another

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Paul Krugman: The Strange Urge to Raise Rates http://equitablegrowth.org/?p=9550

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Shuan Sim: The 7 Best Star Trek Episodes Featuring Leonard Nimoy http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/02/the-7-best-star-trek-episodes-featuring-leonard-nimoy

Posted at 05:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Abi Sutherland: "I’m still quietly reeling from Leonard Nimoy’s death on Friday.... One of the trellises on which I grew my character is gone, really gone.... my leaders and teachers are washing away before my eyes..." http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/016158.html

Posted at 05:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

@alexisgoldstein, @dsquareddigest, @DuncanWeldon, @felixsalmon, @jamesykwak, @Mark__Buchanan, @retheauditors, and @WhelanKarl: Bull Market: A collection of finance and business writing https://medium.com/bull-market

Posted at 05:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Giles Wilkes: Radical Rage at the Resilience of the Right http://equitablegrowth.org/?p=9541

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Mary S. Morgan**: Modelling as a Method of Enquiry http://equitablegrowth.org/?p=9538

Posted at 06:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Julia Ioffe: After Boris Nemtsov’s Assassination, ‘There Are No Longer Any Limits’ http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/02/28/magazine/after-boris-nemtsovs-assassination-there-are-no-longer-any-limits.html

Posted at 04:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Boris Nemtsov: A Final Interview http://equitablegrowth.org/?p=9534

Posted at 08:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Paul Krugman: The Regrettable Man http://equitablegrowth.org/?p=9531

Posted at 06:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Karen Dawisha: "How, why and when did Putin decide to build a Kleptocratic and Authoritarian Regime in Russia and what is its Future?" http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2014/04/russia

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