This is more TOK than economics, but you might find it interesting.
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This is really more of a behavioral economics article (which is outside the scope of the IB Economics course), but it is interesting. If you wanted to write an IA about it, you could make connections to utility and externalities. An explosion at a German factory threatens the supply of a chemical that you’ve never heard of. This chemical has lots of manufacturing uses, and it has no good substitutes (that’s an economics term). A strange little economic problem in Britain. A shortage of goose fat is hurting prices for fried potatoes. A great example of complementary goods! Also some interesting implications about the costs of goose farming. A problem that, I admit I had never thought of before. Going to prison? Don’t know what to expect? Afraid? Then hire a “prison consultant“! Well, people have been saying this for some time now, and it hasn’t happened yet. That doesn’t mean it won’t. Some of this article goes into rather specific financial stuff that you don’t really need to know. However, there is a lot of good big picture macroecomic stuff about inflation and interest rates. The BlackBerry, which dominated the market for smartphones only six years ago, has had an extreme fall in popularity. Some good perspective on basic microeconomics here. It also gives a good illustration of “creative destruction”, which is one of the many big topics in modern economics that never really gets covered in the IB Economics curiculum. There’s never enough time for everything, is there? (opportunity cost?) Of course, because it isn’t in the curiculum you’ll look pretty smart on on your exams if you can explain it. From the website of Marilyn vos Savant, her classic series of columns on the “Game Show Problem“. This is a powerful illustration of how the “intuitive” answer is sometimes not the right one. The Wikipedia entry is pretty good too. A very good story about development economics. Perhaps, if you are not American (and most of you are not), you really don’t care about this story. But there is some really good theory of the firm, product differentiation and non-price competition stuff in here. By the way, McDonald’s is in no danger of being passed up as the #1 fast-food restaurant. |
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