ECN201
Assignment: Supply & Demand

You are responsible for one of the following questions. 

1. Modern technology is wonderful.  You now have the ability to do in seconds what would have taken me hours to do not so many years ago. To convince yourself that you can translate a picture (graph) into a story, I would like you to graph one economic variable that you can find at the Economic Time Series page where you will find Most Requested Series. Once there you can pull up the Price of West Texas Intermediate Crude and you will follow the directions to construct a graph of the price from 1970 to the present rate by selecting GIF chart of this data. You are to right click the graph and paste it to a word document and then use the supply and demand model to explain changes in the price of oil in the past. You are to also try to use S&D to explain what you think will happen to the price in the next five years. 

2. Many of you have lived through the housing bubble of the early 2000s, which seemed to follow the stock market bubble of the 1990s, which in turn, seemed to follow the real estate bubble of the 1980s. So what is next? This is the question addressed by in Janszen's "The next bubble," (Sakai Online Readings) (Harpers Feb. 2008). What do we need for a bubble, what are the potential bubble he sees, and what is it that he settles on as the best candidate for the next BIG bubble?

3. Many of you have lived through the ho suing bubble of the early 2000s, which seemed to follow the stock market bubble of the 1990s, which in turn, seemed to follow the real estate bubble of the 1980s. Why is it that we seem to be so prone to price bubbles? This is the issue Shiller addresses in his book Irrational Exuberance. (Sakai Online Readings) There are three chapters from his book that are available online, the first two being a good read on the stock and real estate markets bubbles. While these are worth the read, it is the third chapter I am interested in, the one in which Shiller identifies the factors responsible for these price bubbles. What is it that he sees as responsible for these bubbles? What is the capitalist explosion that he sees contributing to these bubbles, what impact has the Internet had on those bubbles, and do you see anything that suggests these forces might be getting either weaker or stronger?

Ignore these

1. You are to read Diagnosis: Shortage. The Past, Present, and Future of the Registered Nurse Workforce and describe the theme of the article using a simple S&D diagram. What would your "solution" be to the shortage?

2. What is the cause of Trouble in Coffee Lands and demonstrate it with a simple S& D diagram.