Welcome

I'm glad that there's been so much interest in economics at Ball State. I graduated this spring, and I hope that all of you will take this forum and others around campus to spread comprehension of our beloved field. If nothing else, economics continues to bring insight in to all parts of my life- It will for yours as well.

Till then,

James

there will be blood, among other things

The year's winding down a bit, but that doesn't mean there aren't a few things to take care of-

First off- we have another meeting this THURSDAY, APRIL 17TH AT 7PM IN WB 138. Hope to see you all there.

And for a treat, we're throwing an econ movie in the mix this Saturday, APRIL 19TH at 2PM in WB 152----

THERE WILL BE BLOOD- about a so-called "oil-man" who's quest for greed... well you'll just have to wait and see. Last year's Best Actor going to Daniel Day Lewis. I hope to see you all there, and perhaps you'll bring a friend or two.

WB 138

Our room number for tonight's meeting is WB 138. Hope to see you all there at 7pm!

Next meeting!

Our next meeting will be tomorrow, Thursday, March 6th at 7pm! Hope you can all make it. I'll be making another announcement for the exact room number ASAP.

Oh, and tell me what you think of the flyer!

~J.

Kickstart/ one view on stimulus pack.

A fun little question

Here are the parts:

Hypothetical;
1) We are slipping into a recession because people have slowed their spending habits (on the margin of course). The public has recognized this problem

Very real;
2) The house passed a stimulus package yesterday. While it has yet to go through the senate and the president it is still a fun debate. The house has decided giving people money will stop an economics slowdown.

The possible outcomes I am throwing out for debate;
1) Bernanke asked for it. why not?
2) Six hundred dollars and the "increased liquidity in the market" will "jumpstart" the economy. We avoid the economic downturn.
3) People don't spend it because they are afraid. 2008 is a year of increased unemployment and decreasing economic growth.
4) People spend every cent and it does not matter.
5) We aren't slipping into a recession.

Any other possible outcomes? Any thoughts on these?

Wow

That's about all I can say. Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2008 turns about to be a weird day....In an emergency meeting, the Fed cut the federal funds rate 75 basis points! Here's the link:

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080122/fed_interest_rates.html

It perhaps should be noted that Ball State University's Fed Challenge team noted an interest rate move to 3.5% over 2008. Of course, that data is a couple months old, and haven't done the analysis, but there may be even further rate cuts in the future.

Again, this is after the Bush Administration supported a $150 billion "stimulus" package for the economy... displaying the government's role/politics in dealing with our macro economy. For our meeting thursday I'd like to go over some of these new issues both through candidate rhetoric and what the Fed has said for its recent actions.

Aside from this, actor Heath Ledger died today. He seemed to be a pretty courageous person, and wish well to those involved with him. If you haven't seen any of his work, do yourself a favor and see him.

Until then, keep your eyes and hearts open.

James

Second Life? - sorta

It seems the media is often behind the times as far as what's new and chik on the internet (youtube/facebook/myspace being in similar places). The last couple months I've seen some news stories on Second Life and the possibility of a different sort of booming internet community (though I hear the average user spends less than 10 mins. a month in the program- G4 tv). In any case, the site does offer some statistics on the outlook of its economy, presented here: http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy_stats.php , and here: http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy-graphs.php . Looking at the actual amount of US dollars spent by the userbase, it's sharply declined over the last quarters of 2007. Considering this, I'd be hardpressed to see any company actually investing (any more- those same CNN news stories detail Coca-Cola commercials as well as car companies getting into the action) in Second Life real estate for monetary or marketing reasons (though it did represent a newish way to sell your product to consumers). If these trends continue, I can't see it being more than a fad for internet users. After all, why would you want to pay to be apart of a community when there are alot of sites that allow original content and free interactions (like this one for example).

That said, there's always someone else looking to turn information into commodity. Second Life does offer some interesting new additions (like being able to profit from your technical scripting abilities), but alas it seems like Sims on steroids. Personally being a gamer myself, I think there needs to be a mix between total freedom of user created items and on an actual objective for the game (like with World of Warcraft) to really push into a different sort of online experience. Information technology will keep evolving into something that will give a more tangible, consumable experience, but we'll have to wait a little bit longer for that to come. Till then- don't invest in online real estate.

J.

2008 and Beyond!

The world keeps turning, and as all of you may have seen, politics is no different. Though I'm perhaps not one to care so much about politics (and perhaps a little more than displeased), the way our government works revolves around much of it- so it may be a good idea to see which presidential candidates have sound economic ideas for their platforms. Our next meeting will be next week, so lets try to research a little bit and get to the bottom of one specific issue: future economic well being for the country. Till then,

J.