Part 1

You are to all read the chapter "What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common" from Levitt and Dubner's book Freakonomics and come to class with an answer to the question posed by Levitt and Dubner.

Part 2

It is now time to "test" your knowledge of some of the basics of economics - and we might as well start with three important topics - the prices of stock, real estate, and oil. To get you up to speed on the topics you are to read two chapters from Shiller's book, Irrational Exuberance. Everyone is to read "Precipitating Factors: The Capitalist Explosion, the Internet and Other Factors" and then group A will read "The stock market in historical perspective" while Group L will read "The real estate market in historical perspective." You should be sure to highlight the concepts or relationships in the article that you do not quite understand and post questions concerning them to the discussion board so that by the time we get to class there should be no questions. I expect that each of you will have at least a few questions, so please post them. Think of it like having an online dictionary as you are reading an article and we should all try to contribute to answering the questions. As for the deliverables, each group will need to divide up itself into two subgroups - one responsible for a written report (max 3 pages) and one responsible for a "talking heads" panel presentation on either the real estate or stock markets. Each presentation should be no longer than 15 minutes and if you want to use any PPT, then you must get it to me by 8AM on the day of the presentations. You should make an effort to translate the discussion into S&D graphs. To help you with those graphs you might want to check out the readings on Supply & Demand.