Summary: And the “Beigie” Award goes to…. the Minneapolis Fed!! The Beige Book provides a snapshot of economic activity in the different Federal Reserve Districts every six weeks. Importantly, it does in a very qualitatively, often featuring anecdotes or observations from regional businesses. The Indicator’s favorite entry for this edition described both sides of the tight labor market. Employers enlisting private jets to fly workers to construction sites and fed-up hospitality workers starting their own businesses. We describe how you can set-up your own Beigie Award activity in class!
If you’re a regular follower of audioecon, you’ll notice some updates to our site this month (March 2023). We recognize that, while students are increasingly eager to connect the classroom with current events, incorporating interesting, relevant daily or weekly news can be a heavy lift for professors.
We’ve often included ‘teaching ideas’ in the past to ease the load for instructors wanting to incorporate relevant podcast content into classroom learning and assignments through discussions, reflections, etc. (see the ‘teaching ideas’ category for a full list). Based on feedback, we’ll now be including teaching ideas with every new Audioecon.com post. Follow the ‘teaching ideas’ link on each new post to find :
a few “listening check” multiple-choice questions that incentivize careful pre-class listening,
suggestions for an in class teaching idea (~10 minutes of class time) which may include discussion ideas, numerical problems, data analysis, and graphical or other quantitative problems.
This will facilitate your efforts to help students digest the podcast content and merge it meaningfully with class concepts. We hope this helps you easily infuse fresh examples and applications into your curriculum!
P.S. if you’re a subscriber to audioecon, you may get a few extra email updates in the coming week or so as we add a healthy dose of fresh content. After that things will go back to normal! Apologies and thanks for your patience.
For some, the student loan repayment pause that started in 2020 has allowed people to purchase houses, cars, and have babies. Most student loan borrowers have not made any payment towards their loans because there is no incentive to; especially with the Biden Administration promising $10,000 of loan forgiveness. If loan repayments were to resume it could be detrimental to those that are not prepared to start making those payments again.
Original Air Date: April 15, 2022
Length: 22 Minutes 44 Seconds
Discussion Prompt: What do you think the macroeconomic consequences would be if the government resumed loan payments?
If you use podcasts for teaching economics, you may find a new audioecon.com resource useful. Check out the new ‘Listening to Podcasts for Learning‘ page for tips to share with your students who may be used to listening to podcasts for pleasure, but could use some guidance in listening to learn. We also have a downloadable PowerPoint slide deck available for you to share in your classes or on your learning platform. Thanks to audioecon.com contributors and Emmanuel College students Olivia Fiorini and Eliana Falleur for putting these resources together.
On this episode of NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday, Scott Simon and Emily Green discuss the involvement and control that cartels have in the avocado and lime business in Mexico. Mexico exports about 80% of the US avocado supply and generates around $2.8 billion a year, giving cartels the incentive to get involved. They have been controlling farmers and sending threats to inspectors which caused the US to enforce a short-term ban of avocados from Mexico. With the entanglement of the cartels, you might have to start looking for a different alternative to put on your toast in the morning.
At the end of each semester students in Econ 1101 Principles of Microeconomics at Emmanuel College create their own podcast to demonstrate their ability to apply microeconomic concepts to their world and to use those terms, theories and tenets of micro to understand and evaluate the world around them. Each semester I pick a few of my favorites to post here on AudioEcon. Check out the ‘Podlearning: Student podcast‘ page to listen and learn for yourself. This semester’s star topics include vaccine externalities, the economics of food banks and food insecurity, and a bartender’s eye view of the elasticity of alcohol.
Econ educators, check out the Podlearning page for assignment descriptions and tips to implement student-created podcasts in your classes!
This week the Indicator talks with Economist Gbenga Ajilore, a senior advisor at the Department of Agriculture about the incorrect assumptions associated with life in rural America. He has studied these rural demographics and now advises policymakers away from these misguided ideas. They discuss the common misconceptions about these rural areas of the US relating to population, jobs, and migration. Some highlights Ajilore shares include: farming is not the only way of life, white people are not the only ones that live in rural areas, and that rural areas are not actually dying out.
Discussion Prompt: What are some other myths about rural areas that have an economic influence?
$1.86 trillion in relief spending has been authorized by congress, which will be financed by the sale of government bonds and other debt instruments. The Federal Reserve Bank will purchase many of these bonds which will cause an inflow of money into the economy. This podcast also elaborates on the inflationary implications of the stimulus checks entering the economy.
There is also discussion of Google’s market power and vaccination progress.
Discussion Prompt: What is the intended goal of the stimulus checks and what unintended consequences can arise as a result?
As International Women’s Month begins, this podcast by Planet Money helps highlight some of the issues involving sexism and economics. At the time Alice Wu was an economics undergraduate at UC Berkeley and had found an online job forum but was shocked to see the attitude and banter relating to women in the field of economics. She then used her econ skills to analyze the inherent bias found on the site and put out a report on her findings, leading to many woman in the economic field sharing their stories and exposing some of the sexism they have had to face.
Discussion Prompt: What are some ways that social issues, such as sexism can be address throughout a whole field like economics?
The United States used to lead the world in their percentage of college graduates. Today, the U.S is lagging behind countries like Japan and South Korea. Dr. Monge-Naranjo from the Federal Reserve Bank discusses how this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and how the United States can benefit from the ideas and technologies being produced elsewhere.
Original Air Date: August 31 2020
Length: 3 minutes 13 seconds
Discussion Prompt: What other ways can this idea benefit the United States? What ways could this be harmful to the United States? Is there any significance or advantage to being “number 1” in terms of college educated workers?
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