Yesterday the State of Illinois issued a warning to gas station operators that they would be watching for price gouging over the holiday weekend.  Here is the story from WAND.

Macroeconomics students will be talking about the idea of Price Gouging very soon in class (right before Test 1).  Microeconomics students should already have an idea about how I felt when I read this.

I am curious to know how they will distinguish between increased prices due to storm related supply reductions and those caused by illegal gouging?

Macroeconomics 01, MWF 9:00am:

Opportunity Cost assign; Due Wednesday, August 29

Macroeconomics 02, TTh 9:30am:

Opportunity Cost assign; Due Thursday, August 30   

Macroeconomics 03, TTh 12:30pm:

Opportunity Cost assign; Due Thursday, August 30

____________________

Microeconomics 01, MWF 11:00am:

Elasticity assign 1; Due Friday, August 31

Macroeconomics 01, MWF 9:00am:

Survey assign; Due Friday, August 24

Macroeconomics 02, TTh 9:30am:

Survey assign; Due Tuesday, August 28

Macroeconomics 03, TTh 12:30pm:

Survey assign; Due Tuesday, August 28

____________________

Microeconomics 01, MWF 11:00am:

Surplus assign; Due Monday, August 27

Here is another good article from NPR, this time about gas prices and the news. They point out how media coverage is positively correlated with gas prices. What do you think are the social consequences of this reporting trend? Do you think, intentionally or inadvertently, this impacts how people feel about an economy?

I stumbled across this video and article on NPR yesterday.  It actually provides a great starting point to the semester for both Economics courses.

Macroeconomics:  We begin the semester by discussing the idea of hidden costs, and other values that are not normally monetized.  We then move into how prices are created, and spend some time on policy issues which may have impacts that were unintended or ultimately counterproductive.

Microeconomics:  We will discuss, prior to Test 1, how corporations aren’t always able to accurately account for all the expenses they incur during production.  This becomes a much larger issue later in the course when we consider that some of those costs they are not able to capture have significant effects on society.