My end-of-year assignment for my macro students was to make a presentation about an economic concept that we learned this year as found in a movie or television clip, comic strip, music video, book, news article, advertisement, commercial, or other media. I gave them a couple of examples – a supply/demand analysis of Green Eggs and Ham and economic topics sprinkled in Bill Nye’s recent science lecture at Mizzou – then turned them loose. I had no idea what they might come up with, but the presentations exceeded my expectations. Everything from Disney’s Frozen to Calvin and Hobbes to Super Bowl ads to a couple more Dr. Seuss books, analyses of supply and demand in the chocolate and ammo markets and a comparison of normal and inferior goods in college and suburban communities. One student even used the CPI to compare the relative cost of early automobiles to today’s models.
When I assigned this project, I showed the music video “We Got It 4 Cheap” by Dorian Electra and mentioned that I would be very impressed if any of my students put together a music video for their project. Well, guess what? Two of them did just that and I have posted the result here. Be forewarned: the volume could stand a little tweaking. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, but I doubt if that is possible.
I am so pleased. If my students learned nothing else this semester, at least they realize that Economics are Everywhere!
