Lessons Ahead

Hey 08/11~

Here's a summary of what we will be covering in the coming week.

1. Complete Qn 10 & 11 on Demand found in Lecture Notes Tutorial Discussion (Tues)
2. Essay Review (Tues & Thurs)
3. Complete Lecture Notes Tutorial Discussion on Supply (Thurs)
4. Complete Lecture Notes Tutorial Discussion on Market Equilibrium (Fri)

As such, please come prepared for lessons! If possible, look at the questions in advance and attempt them. If you come to class without even doing anything, you will not benefit from the lesson.

p.s. we might be attempting an essay this week

cheers~

Mr. Andy

Nuclear Crisis in Japan

Hey~

Just an interesting video that I found circulating Facebook recently regarding the Nuclear Crisis in Japan.

Enjoy!

cheers~
Mr. Andy

Homework for Tuesday (22/03/2011)

Hey~

Please look through your notes Resource Allocation in Competitive Markets and attempt the questions for Tutorial Discussion found in your Lecture Notes (pg 12-13).

I'll spend some time in class summarizing the topic such that you guys have a clearer idea of what it is about.

cheers~
Mr. Andy

p.s. If you have any requests for the coming lesson, please feel free to comment under this post and I'll see if it is possible to fit your requests in.

Economics Timed Essay

Hey~

For those who were absent or would like to attempt the essay once again over this holiday, here is the question.

(a) Explain the economic problem faced by households, firms and governments. [10m]
(b) Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRICs) have been classified as Emerging Market Economies. These countries have moved away from central planning and now place greater emphasis on market forces to determine the allocation of resources. how can you account for this change? [15m]

All the best!

cheers~
Mr. Andy

p.s. I'll be posting work to be done by our first tutorial next week, so do stay tuned!
p.p.s. PLEASE visit and comment in the required posts!

Group Names

As much as I love the current group names, I do feel that they are slightly inappropriate and perhaps not very much of a value-addedness to your education. Therefore, I would like you guys to revise your group names along the lines of Names of Famous Economists.

Do edit this post and have your new names up by the start of Term 2. 

1) PROW --> John Sloman

2) PMS -->

3) Pink Panther --> Nouriel Roubini 

4) Lucipher --> Gary Becker

5) Duckweed -->

Remember, its on a first-come-first-serve basis!

cheers~

Mr. Andy

HI!!

Please comment and sign off so that I know that you guys have looked at the blog!

cheers~
Mr. Andy

How are YOU going to react?

Hey~

This is an interesting video I've watched some time back. Felt it might be relevant not only to Economics but to you guys as students. Look at it and then think about it. What are your reactions to it? Let's discuss.

Thomas Robert Malthus

  As mentioned by Hung during class, the Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus was a British scholar who lived in the 18th Century. He wrote explicitly on the theory of population and believed that "The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man". This is stated in his An Essay on the Principle of Population.

  Can anyone find out more about him and his views regarding population? Do his theories have any value in this age and time? What can we gain by understanding his views on the human population and how it affects growth?
 
  As you are thinking about this and penning down your comments, try to link it back to the concept of scarcity! Feel free to add in comments with regards to this topic!!

Unit Summary: Scarcity, Choice & Opportunity Cost

In their everyday lives, students inevitably go through the process of making choices, which involves weighing their various available options and selecting the best one given circumstances. In their years of secondary school education, students have acquired the skills necessary to analyze data and articles critically, drawing inferences about the intentions behind various sources. These experiences will allow students to understand Singapore as a nation which lacks in both natural and human resources. Under such circumstances, students will be able to better identify with the concepts introduced in this introductory unit of Economics.


In this Unit 1.1, students will discover the pivotal concept behind Economics - scarcity. Due to the limited amount of resources that society has, not all the wants of society can be satisfied. As a result, the interplay of the two problems of limited resources and unlimited wanted would require choices to be made at all levels. Society cannot consume and/or produce all the goods it desires. It can only consume and/or produce more of one good by giving up some units of another good. Hence, making choices are inevitable due to the existence of scarcity.


Students will also consider how individuals and communities make choices based on their dominant self-interests. In selecting the choice with the lowest opportunity cost, rational decisions on how these limited resources are to be allocated are made by weighing the costs and benefits of doing a little bit more or a little bit less of a specific activity. They will be able to apply this notion of trade-offs to the selection of daily choices, and gain a better appreciation of Economics in the real world.


Learning about the idea of scarcity and opportunity cost will enable students to understand the motivation and consequences of decisions in the context of economic theory and reality. Through this, students will be able to realize how the government and firms arrive at conclusions such as specialization, division of labour and trade between and within countries based on their respective goals. Households are also involved in decision-making, where they have to make choices on how to allocate their means to reach various ends. Such understandings will lay the foundation upon which all economic theories are formed. With these critical thinking and analytical skills, students will be more aware of real world events happening around them and value the importance and relevance of Economics in explaining these occurrences.

Welcome!

Dear Students of Class 08/11,

Welcome! This shall be the class blog for Economics for the next year(s). The purpose for setting up this blog is to facilitate communication and discussion between myself and the class. As such, please do feel free to make full use of this blog as a means of posing questions/queries with regards to Economics or anything else under the sun! Hopefully through this informal setting, I'm able to get to know you guys better and even cultivate a culture for discussion.

This blog ought not be a one-way channel, but I would like to see everyone getting involved either posting entries or simply commenting on your friends' entries.

However, do note that I will act as the moderator for this blog. Therefore, here are some simple expectations I hope you guys would follow.

Expectations:

1. Do sign off after every post/comment.
2. No vulgarities/obscenity
3. Respect everyone's point of view and read with an open mind

With those in mind, do have fun engaging in constructive discussion!!

Cheers~
Mr. Andy