Sooo…is “going over the fiscal cliff” the new jumping the shark? I’m just kidding, of course…I mean, any jumping the shark moment for The Simpsons would have happened quite a while ago. Maybe I’m just cranky that the show’s writers had the perfect opportunity to surreptitiously teach people something reasonably important and didn’t fully take [...]
Entries Tagged as 'The Simpsons'
Just For Fun: When The Simpsons Go Off The Fiscal Cliff…
December 5th, 2012 · 1 Comment
Just For Fun · The Simpsons
Tags: Just For Fun · The Simpsons
What My (Non)Students Have Been Learning, Behavioral Economics And The Simpsons Edition…
November 16th, 2012 · 5 Comments
Behavioral Econ · The Simpsons
You’d think that my students would be sick of hearing me talk by now, but instead one of them invited me to speak at a meeting of the Northeastern University Economics Society. (Not coincidentally, they were also selling their version of an Economists Do It With Models T-shirt.) When I asked my student what I [...]
Tags: Behavioral Econ · The Simpsons
Supply And Demand, Chickens And Eggs…And Snowplows?
January 4th, 2011 · 8 Comments
Macroeconomics · Markets · The Simpsons
If you were paying attention in your econ 101 class, you probably remember that the supply and demand model was presented as a reasonably simple setup that explains how market prices and quantities get determined. What the model glosses over is the inherent chicken and egg problem with markets- for example, what’s the quote from [...]
Tags: Macroeconomics · Markets · The Simpsons
Happy (Belated) Nobel Prize Day! And A Lesson On Unemployment…
October 13th, 2010 · 7 Comments
Macroeconomics · Markets · The Simpsons
Yes yes, I could have written this earlier, but I didn’t want to, uh, overshadow Columbus Day? (Technically Columbus Day was yesterday, since the first time one of Columbus’ crew members saw land was on October 12, 1492.) Actually, I haven’t been feeling well, but I didn’t want to leave you hanging forever, so… The [...]
Tags: Macroeconomics · Markets · The Simpsons
Help! My City Is Turning Into Springfield, Soda Ban Edition…
September 23rd, 2010 · 7 Comments
Econ 101 · Policy · The Simpsons
If you’ve paid close attention in Econ 101, you may have noticed that economists mention two socially beneficial reasons for taxes- to collect money to pay for public goods and to internalize negative externalities. Sometimes, if we’re feeling frisky, we even talk about taxes in the context of income redistribution, but that is a normative [...]
Tags: Econ 101 · Policy · The Simpsons