Thursday, August 30, 2007

Next Week...

Next week we will finish chapter 2 and read The Tragedy of the Commons.

Garrett Hardin published this piece in 1968 and for any current student of resource economics it is just as relevant today as it was 39 years ago - maybe even more so today.

Nice class today - I am enjoying the level of participation.

Peace

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Simple ideas from a brilliant man

And he's a pretty good hoopster to boot. Bill Bradley had a nice piece in the Washington Post
a few months back that is worth revisiting. His argument is simple - tax the things we want less of (oil imports) and reduce taxes on things we want more of (jobs). In case you weren't aware, Dollar Bill ran for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 2000. He served in the US Senate for 18 years, played for the Knicks for about a decade ( I saw him play when I was 4), went to Princeton and Oxford. The ideas he talks about in the article are just a sampling of the kind of things he thinks about - I guess that's why I voted for him in 2000 and wish he would run again.

The General

Monday, August 27, 2007

More on China

Yesterday's NYTimes had an article on economic growth and pollution in China. It is hard to imagine how fast China's economy has been growing and even harder to imagine just how dirty the air and water must be. It begs the question - at what price growth??

China Pays Steep Price As Textile Exports Boom

Did you see the WSJ article on August 22nd with the title "China Pays Steep Price As Textile Exports Boom"? A perfect example of negative externalities.

Below is the link if you have access:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118580938555882301.html

The Syllabus

ECN 330

Sunday, August 26, 2007

The Costs of Market Failure

Since we will be talking about market failure in class this week - here is an update on the link between pollution and asthma.

Friday, August 24, 2007

The General Is Back!!

Back in the classroom - that is. Yesterday I taught my first class as Visiting Associate Professor of Economics at UNC-Wilmington. It felt good to be back in the classroom and the 22 students who showed up seem like a great bunch - I am really looking forward to the semester. As was the case last Winter - we will be using this site as a place to conduct an ongoing conversation about Natural resource economics and related issues. Hope to hear from lots of you.