THE TEACHING ECONOMIST - William A. McEachern 
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Issue 23, Fall 2002
William A. McEachern, Editor
Grapevine
Here are some economic bloggers. Brad DeLong of the University of California, Berkeley, writes a "Semi-Daily Journal" about economic issues at www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/. He also maintains a home page at http://econ161.berkeley.edu that includes his syllabi and his strategy for teaching a graduate macro course (he focuses on the research agenda of sixteen macroeconomists). Nouriel Roubini of New York University offers no commentary at his "Global Macroeconomic and Financial Policy Site" (http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~nroubini/asia/) but provides abundant links. James D. Miller of Smith College writes the "Conservative Economist" at http://conservativeeconomist.blogspot.com/2002_05_01_ConservativeEconomist_archive.html, but he hasn't revised it since last May. He earned a law degree from Stanford and an economics Ph.D. from Chicago. Arnold Kling, an MIT Ph.D. in economics, writes daily about the economics of information technology at www.corante.com/bottomline/, especially regulation, intellectual property, network effects, and productivity. Dr. Kling speaks from experience—he founded homefair.com in 1994, one of the first commercial Web sites, then sold it to homestore.com in 1999 (for his self-effacing account of missteps along the way, see www.arnoldkling.com/~arnoldsk/aimst2/aimst218.html). Finally, the self-described "Blog of Record for the Dismal Science" (http://econoblog.blogspot.com/) is produced by a team that includes Dr. Kling and Professor Miller, among others, but updates have been infrequent. Have you found any economic blogs to recommend?
As already noted, the Spring 2002 issue of The Teaching Economist discussed the discrepancy between the movie, A Beautiful Mind, and the biography of John Nash that inspired it. Burton Abrams, of the University of Delaware writes to say that other parts of the movie also deserve criticism. For example, Russell Crowe's Nash says in the movie "Adam Smith was wrong." In fact, Nash merely changed some of Smith's assumptions (such as a large number of players and no collusion), so Nash worked from a different model than did Smith. Since Smith's assumptions were changed, how could Smith be "wrong"? Professor Burton argues "Nash's graduate student (and future wife) solves Nash's classroom problem and brings her solution into his office. He indicates that she inserted an assumption that he had not intended (due, apparently, to the sloppy statement of the problem). Ironically, Nash exclaims that her insertion of an unintended assumption makes her answer 'ultimately, wrong.' By the same logic (or actually, lack thereof), Nash's new model, which changes assumptions, is also 'ultimately, wrong.' "
In the Fall 2001 issue, I observed that e-mail has reduced the transaction costs students face in missing exams, and has thus increased the number of make-up exams. Don Richards of Indiana State University doesn't offer make-ups. Instead he puts the weight of the missing exam on his final, which is comprehensive. He says that fairness also dictates that students can not be sure whether the final will be as difficult as the regular exam. Professor Richards says that an opportunistic student in this setting must also be a risk-taker. He doesn't think many students miss midterms intentionally to exploit his system.
Allan Sleeman of Western Washington University writes that a good candidate for "Economist as Movie Hero" is Josiah "Jed" Bartlett, the U.S. President on NBC's The West Wing. Martin Sheen as Bartlett plays a Democrat from New Hampshire who supposedly taught economics at Amherst after earning an M. Sc. and Ph.D. from the London School of Economics. Professor Sleeman says that although Bartlett's economic expertise does not come into play all that much, the show is "brilliant" and the best on TV. Incidentally, more than two centuries ago, the real-life Josiah Bartlett was a New Hampshire physician, farmer, and entrepreneur, and the first person to sign the Declaration of Independence.
Mark Thorton of Columbus State University in Georgia and the Ludwig von Mises Institute has written two interesting essays on the economics of the Star Wars movies. "Star Wars and Our Wars," examines The Attack of the Clones, and can be found at http://www.mises.org/fullarticle.asp?control=948&month=44&title=Star+Wars+and+Our+Wars&id=46. He wrote about the earlier Star Wars movies at http://www.mises.org/fullarticle.asp?control=277&month=11&title=+Star+Wars+Revisited&id=46. Professor Thorton says students seem to enjoy the pieces, and they stimulate class discussion.
Eric Steger of East Central University in Oklahoma uses the 9/11 terrorist attacks to discuss fixed costs, variable costs, and the shutdown point. Because people were stunned by the tragedy, many stayed home in the days and weeks following the attacks, shopping only for necessities. Retailers saw their sales drop but their fixed costs remain unchanged. Some that could no longer cover their variable costs shut down temporarily. As things returned to normal, businesses reopened. By the way, for a collection of brief essays aimed at undergraduates, see 9/11: Economic Viewpoints (South-Western, 2002).