Annual Editions: Economics 03/04

UNIT 1. Introduction 1. How Much for a Life? Try $3 Million to $5 Million, Peter Passell, New York Times, January 29, 1995 Much economic reasoning is based on the opportunity cost principle, the idea that any decision involving scarce resources must involve costs in terms of forgone alternatives elsewhere. Peter Passell applies this principle to an age-old question: What is the value of a human life? 2. Building Wealth, Lester C. Thurow, The Atlantic Monthly, June 1999 Lester Thurow maintains that the world is currently in the throes of a third industrial revolution, in which knowledgerather than natural resourcesis the key to success. The knowledge-based economy is asking new questions, giving new answers, and developing new rules for generating wealth. 3. Could Capitalists Actually Bring Down Capitalism?, Kurt Eichenwald, New York Times, June 30, 2002 Recently, a staggering number of corporate debacles is raising a disturbing question: Can capitalism survive the capitalists themselves? Kurt Eichenwald argues that the system has a built-in corrective factor that kicks in when abusessuch as those found at Enron, Global Crossing, and WorldComgo too far. UNIT 2. Microeconomics 4. The Company We'll Keep, Joseph B. White, Wall Street Journal, December 31, 1999 Joseph White claims that in the new millennium, corporations will be little more than brand names, covers for frequent-flying, cyberspace-cruising freelancers who form virtual teams on wireless networks. 5. Smoke Signals, New York Times, New Jersey Sunday Edition, January 10, 1999 One of the more useful concepts in microeconomics is demand elasticity, which measures the responsiveness of consumer demand to changes in prices. Recently, the New Jersey legislature doubled the state cigarette tax in an effort to reduce smoking. This article examines the impact that this has had on cigarette sales in both New Jersey and nearby states. 6. Entree Economics, Eileen Daspin, Wall Street Journal, March 10, 2000 What does that restaurant meal really cost? Eileen Daspin calculates the prices that six American eateries pay for the food they serve and finds some surprises. Among them are that markups can amount to several hundred percent and that vegetarians tend to subsidize meat-eaters. 7. How Burger King Got Burned in Quest to Make the Perfect Fry, Jennifer Ordonez, Wall Street Journal, January 16, 2001 Burger King wanted to be french fry king. Instead, as Jennifer Ordonez shows, it created a fast-food fiasco. This case study provides interesting details on the importance of product differentiation as a strategic device used by highly competitive firms. 8. Can Target Thrive in Wal-Mart's Cross Hairs?, Constance L. Hays, New York Times, June 9, 2002 With Kmart hobbled by bankruptcy, it is Target that now gets the attention of Wal-Mart stores, the biggest retailer in the United States and also the biggest company. At stake are the wallets of the growing number of consumers who shop discount stores by choice. 9. Broadband Policy: Did Somebody Say Oligopoly?, Steve Rosenbush, Business Week, March 18, 2002 The glorious, competitive free-for-all envisioned in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 hasn't arrived. The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission suggests that it is time to let the oligopolies fight it out themselves. 10. Deregulation Harms Public, Group Claims, Marilyn Geewax, Atlanta-Journal Constitution, June 11, 2002 Consumer's Union,Cole, Don is the author of 'Annual Editions: Economics 03/04' with ISBN 9780072548457 and ISBN 0072548452.