Naked Economics – Undressing the Dismal Science 2e

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Wheelan is also the author of 10 ½ Things No Commencement Speaker Has Ever Said and An Introduction to Public Policy, a comprehensive textbook on public policy published by W.W. Norton in November of 2010. In March of 2009, Wheelan ran unsuccessfully for Congress as the representative from the Illinois 5th District in the special election to replace Rahm Emanuel. In its editorial assessing the race, the Chicago Sun-Times wrote, “Voters will find a ballot filled with impressive and thoughtful candidates . . . especially Charlie Wheelan, a University of Chicago lecturer who combines a razor-sharp mind with a boatload of charm and an impressive expertise in economics and foreign policy. We expect great things from Wheelan in the future.”

From 2004 to 2012, Wheelan was a senior lecturer in public policy at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. He taught several courses on understanding the policy process for Master’s students. For the 2004-05 academic year, he was voted Professor of the Year in a Non-Core Course by the Harris School student body.Lccn 2002023580 Ocr_converted abbyy-to-hocr 1.1.20 Ocr_module_version 0.0.17 Openlibrary OL7451736M Openlibrary_edition Wheelan also explains how we make decisions with imperfect information, weigh trade-offs, and define “cost” (which is more than just cash). Generally, when costs decrease, we consume more of something and vice versa. 2. Firms Act to Maximize Profits

All financial instruments are built on 4 basic needs – to raise capital, protect/ grow wealth, insure against risk, and speculate. Overall, international trade makes all the countries involved richer and raises their standards of living, be they rich or poor to start with. It does so by: Good government is essential to a strong, productive market while poor government can lead to the demise of an entire economy. The Government can be your Friend When a sale is made, firms and individuals connect and maximize their utility against each other. “Utility” can be thought of as happiness, and maximizing it means making yourself as well-off as possible. In a sale, firms look to make as much money as possible, while individuals look to satisfy a need or desire by purchasing something. Now that we’ve explored some basic concepts of economics, let’s look at the role governments play in markets.Good government is necessary for markets to prosper by issuing laws and protecting property, while bad governments can send them into decline. A market economy is really just a name for the transaction of buying and selling goods and services, and the scarcer the goods and services and the more demand, the more people are willing to pay for them. This explains in part why LeBron James makes more money than I do. There are fewer people who play basketball exceptionally well than can teach, which is what I do (and remember, teachers are not paid on a sliding scale where the better teachers make more for their outstanding performance). So LeBron James's skills are scarcer, mine are not. Note, by the way, this is not making a value judgment. It is an explanation of the pay disparity. And it is unlikely that the demand would be there for LeBron James's basketball talents were we living in the 18th century, in which case I would have more human capital than someone who can put a ball in a hoop. The definition of economic progress is important to consider when evaluating any claims of improvement. For example, if we’re using a measure of progress that only looks at financial growth, we might miss other important aspects of economic development. When people experience a loss in income, they often spend less, which can have a ripple effect on the economy as a whole. Our collective beliefs about the future of the economy can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.