Featured Entry - Investing Ahead of The Crowd

People invest their money in the stock market searching for more maximum gains that are not availible in fixed-rate interest CD's or Money Market Accounts. With the chance for a higher reward, the higher risk is certainly there. CDs are one of the safer investments someone can make yet people feel as if a measly 5% ROI is not enough in the expensive and materialistic world we are living in. Investors tend to put their money in companies that they feel are undervalued and will either sign more contracts in the future, or have more demand for their products. The key to success in the market is certianly being "ahead of the crowd" and investing in stocks that do not attract much attention....yet. I decided to take a look at today's news and see if there are any markets that are "untapped" and ready to be invested in. Global Warming seems to be a big issue now; in my hometown we have yet to see one day of snow and it is already December 15th. A smart investor would see how he or she could take advantage of this issue. With warmer weather all year round certain products will be used more and certain less. Natural Gas, Sleds, and Snow Apparel are the first few products that would be less demanded were the weather to constantly be warmer. Outdoor sports such as golf and tennis would be played more. I beleive Global Warming is seen as being too far in the future to currently take interest in financially, but after noticing that I have yet to see any snow this year, I believe this is the right time to start looking at options in the Global Warming field. I believe any investor who does his "homework" and figures out a product that will be in high demand in the future or in low demand will be a successful investor and the future will hold huge gains.

-Alex Osborne

Featured Entry - Fairness of School Systems

We read an article in ID from the New York Times called “Shadow Lines That Still Divide”. The article was from May 2005, but tied into our ID discussions about American values. The article discusses class divisions in the US and whether or not the distinctions between classes have become more defined or less clear. One important issue brought up was that of public education—a topic we discussed in Economics. The success of a person’s education is largely linked to class, according to the article. This is most likely because in America, school systems are mostly funded by local taxes, making the schools in more well-off areas wealthier. Wealthier children who attend public school are more likely to get a good education (not to mention those who attend private school).
In American recently, merit has seemed to replace the system of inherited privilege. There are more self-made billionaires then there use to be and fewer and fewer of the wealthiest people in the country are wealthy because of family money. Still, the problem becomes that the people who most often earn their success had opportunities and were raised by parents who had money and provided their children with a good education. Even though they earn their success, merit is still seen as partially class-based.

-Whitney Kamin

Featured Entry - Brian Davis's Logic?

I'm trying to understand Brian Davis's logic behind his attempt to buy 70% of the Memphis Grizzlies. Davis is a former Duke and NBA basketball player who has made lots of money in real estate (he's also 36 years old). He wants to buy the Grizzlies to "redevelop" the neighborhoods in downtown Memphis, which he calls the "black belt." Although I admire his goals, I wonder about the fiscal wisdom of his decision to do this. In order for hiim to become managing partner of the Grizzlies, Davis personally has to invest $54 million of his own money. He says he has the money, but he bases his claims on, for example, the value of a house he has in Baltimore, which he says is worth $20 million. However, "Baltimore city tax rolls" value the house at about $4.4 million. It seems to me that Davis is stretching his finances a bit thin; he is also bidding for a stake in Major League Soccer's D.C. United team. The Grizzlies lost $40 million last year, so Davis will need a lot of luck if he's going to make a profit from this investment.

-Kunal

Featured Entry - Wal-Mart's Expansion

Wal-Mart is going to China! Wal-Mart is the worlds largest retailer and it's expanding. They are planning on buying out 31 stores over the next 3 years. They already have 66 stores in China but they are adding more in order to become the number one retailer there. The company is growing by acquisition, which means they are buying out other stores in order for them to grow; kind of like Ned's example with the movie stores somewhere in the south. Wal-mart has been withdrawing from a few companies like Germany and South Korea, so they need to grow again. Wal-mart sells everything at low prices, their slogan is even "everyday low prices." They already do well in China so expanding is a good idea.

-Marianna daCosta

Featured Entry - Personal Health Not Enough?

Obesity is definitely a problem for Americans. Since the United States is so wealthy, Americans have to worry about eating too much and gaining too much weight (while in Africa, people are trying not to die of starvation). How does America solve the ridiculous problem of obesity?
It’s simple. The most important economic principle (according to me) is that people respond to incentives. If people eat too much McDonalds or ice cream, there are obvious healthy risks; however, people seem to care about that less than money and convenience. As a result, I propose an alteration in health insurance that will make living unhealthily more expensive. This is a great monetary measure to get people to stay healthy. If a person belongs to a gym, then their health plan (and if old enough, life insurance) is less expensive. In addition, the government should force unhealthy food producers to place a warnings on their product and advertisements. For example, at the end of a McDonalds commercial, there would be a short sentence saying that consumption of McDonalds may lead to high cholesterol and high blood pressure which could lead to hear attack. Even though the government can educate the American people through advertisements, the government has little control in the problem. It is unconstitutional for the government to regulate a free market like fast food. Burger King is producing a good and there is a demand for it, the US government can not artificially raise the price with taxes because it is an abuse of their powers. The government does have the right to force Burger King to inform consumers of its
product’s health risks. I believe my two solutions, education and monetary measures will go a long way in solving the problem of obesity.

-Sam Cross

Featured Entry - Supply and Demand for Hugs

It was very late one night, and Chris and I were talking on AIM. Ofcourse, we started to talk about our Economics class and how we were enjoying learning the subject. Our conversation then converted into an in-depth discussion on an economical opinion of hugs. The subject in question was very mundane, but somehow we were able to make it work. We decided that scarcity was apparent when it concerned hugs. Some people rarely hug others, and so their hugs are obviously scarce. On the other hand, people who always give hugs have too much supply and therefore there isn't too much demand for them. Our conversation also inculded the opportunity costs and incentives for certain people's hugs. This may have seemed as an absolutely absurd topic to be discussing economically but it was really fun to make it work...and it made so much sense!

- Riddhima Hinduja

Featured Entry - Shopping for food on Amazon?

Personally, I just don't see why people would shop for food online. Yeah, it saves time but I think doing things like food shopping every once in a while is healthy. It makes sense for older people but for some reason I've never been a big fan of getting things delivered. In Brasil everything can be delivered right to your door. Supermarkets, pharmacies, McDonalds, electronics, everything. I think that makes people lazy. A lot of people don't have time to go food shopping so they shop online. I guess that works for them but I like the supermarket and food shopping. The article says that Amazon getting into the food market makes sense economically. It only ships non-perishable items so the market is limited. The real money is usually in the shipping when it comes to online shopping and Amazon offers a lot of cheap shipping options so it might not be as profitable. They mention that online shoppers are more loyal but I don't see that. I can't build a relationship with Amazon food but I go to the supermarket and I have the opportunity to meet new people.

- Marianna daCosta

Featured Entry - Economic Decisions on a Night Out

The night on which I went to see Borat with a group of friends featured lots of economic decisions. Mostly they were choices involving the balancing of risk and reward. First was how much to pay for parking at the parking garage. Do I underestimate the length of my stay and incur the risk of a ticket, or do I overestimate and risk wasting $0.50? Let's be realistic, there's no way to pay exactly the right amount. That night I decided to pay the extra $0.50 for the extra hour. What was ironic was that after I met up with my friends, I learned that some had only paid for one hour of parking because "they never check." Oh. How silly of me.
Another decision that was made soon afterwards was where to eat. One person seemed set on Legal Seafoods; this is understandable, given that Legal Seafoods is fantastic. However, we had to make a 7:40 movie (that was sold out), and it was 6:45. There was a Famiglia Pizza across the street - much faster, and quite good. However, the draw of Legal Seafoods was too much; we had clam chowder and then sprinted to the theater, where we found seats together - in the second row, on the right side, in an area from which the screen looks a bit distorted. The risk we had taken turned out to be an actual cost, but in my mind the reward outweighed the terrible seats. We still had a good time. Of course, had I received a parking ticket, the night would have been much worse.

-Kunal

Featured Entry - Starbucks: A Way of Life

Starbucks is not just a store that sells coffee; it is a way of life. Millions of people world-wide wake up in the morning, get dressed and pick up a cup of Starbucks coffee before heading off to work. With no competitors, Starbucks coffee holds a monopoly on the coffee industry. However, the company is not settling for getting adults addicted, they are thinking for the future by making kids a part of the Starbucks community. By releasing a new series of drinks that obviously are more appealing to kids than to adults (even though Starbucks claims this was not their intention), Starbucks are making their store the new after school hang out.
As a business move, Starbucks’ new project is very smart. By pounding on their brand name at an early age, Starbucks guarantees themselves a generation of life-long consumers. In addition, the drinks geared towards kids are more expensive. Regardless of the monetary expense, parents are still buying these drinks for their kids. The Starbucks organization created a demand shift because they have added a whole new pool of consumers to their products.
The new consumer (which is probably a parent) is making a choice. While the opportunity cost is possibly an unhealthy diet and additional money, adults are choosing to bring their kids to Starbucks because it is a safe and welcoming environment. Instead of getting into trouble after school, kids are in Starbucks, drinking a frappacino and talking with friends. Parents are willing to take the health and fiscal risk in order to make sure their kids are in a secure environment.
Ethically, there is nothing wrong with Starbucks selling their drinks to kids because the trade is voluntary: the consumer has a choice. Although the drinks are fattening and loaded with sugar, this is part of the risk that consumers are taking. The most shocking part of this event is that consumer demand is high enough for Starbucks to make a profit from this experiment. A teenager can now go to Starbucks with his friends and enjoy a $5.00 Mocha Frappacino, which could probably feed an entire family in Africa for a day. Wow that’s equality.
-Sam Cross

Featured Entry - Tax free Cigarettes

Right now there is no tax on Indian cigarettes and they are significantly cheaper. Indian reserves are like a Costco for cigarettes because when people have the chance they like to buy a lot at once and save some money (I know Costco has taxes but the whole buying in bulk idea carries over). NY state is trying to pass a law that would place a tax on the cigarettes. NY state loses about 600million dollars a year to untaxed cigarettes and now wants part of that money. The new tax would be about $1.50 (still less than other cigarettes). The tribes are worried because most of the revenue they make is from tax-free cigarettes and if the tax is imposed their revenue would be significantly less. The tribes would be in serious trouble if this law is imposed and it is unfair to impose the tax so all of a sudden. Maybe if the government did something to keep them in business but they can't just take away such a large part of their revenue and not expect consequences.

-Marianna daCosta

Featured Entry - Rethinking Taxes

Taxes, ugh. Every year people are forced to give away their hard-earned money to the government so that politicians can decide where the money can be most beneficial to society. American citizens are losing their incentive to work since a huge amount of their paychecks are being seized by the government. Although taxes serve a positive purpose to society, they also destroy the moral and purchasing power of the American people. Seeking a compromise between the American people’s incetive to work and the government’s need to improve the nation’s problems, I had the idea that Americans could receive a tax reduction if they accomplished a certain number of community service hours. At each tax bracket or level, a citizen must do a certain amount of hours of community service to get a tax deduction on their taxes. In considering political fiscal policy, democrats would welcome this idea because it is concerned about helping the little guy and improving society while republicans would like the idea because of the tax breaks. All the while, the American people will be enthusiastic about the idea because they can see a direct effect of their tax payments (community service) and they will have more money to spend on goods. The American economy will boom because of the increase in consumer demand because of the rise in purchasing power. Even though one may be against giving the government this much power in society, I would say it also lessens the power of the government by giving it a smaller payroll to spend recklessly Tax reductions from community service hours allows people to help their country without giving away their salary. With this system, people have a choice. In addition, community service work now creates two incentives, self-satisfaction and additional capital. The American people are using the resource of time more efficiently than they used the resource of money when paying taxes. With the tax reductions through social actions, people choose how to allocate their resources more efficiently.

-Sam Cross

Featured Entry - The Burden of Textbooks

Textbooks seem to have fallen behind in our fast paced world of technological development. Living in a wireless world, we still find ourselves lugging around 5 pound textbooks to each class. Not only are they extremely expensive but publishers come out with "new editions" every year where it seems as the only difference is an updated cover and we must buy this new edition to be "on the same page" as everyone else. So, how can we fix this problem? RCDS is blessed with having a laptop program starting in 7th grade, yet, we still do not take advantage of this program. Virtual textbooks would solve this problem. Instead of going through a middleman manufacturer who needs to assemble the book, you would be, in essence, buying directly from the author(s). There is an incentive for everyone here; the author(s) is now selling his product directly to the consumer and his/her profit margin will now be huge. The incentive for students is obvious; no more carrying around heavy backpacks. Another advantage of this method, is when the author "updates" his textbook all he would need to do is edit the textbook and repost it or resend it to his buyers. Lastly, with a virtual textbook the possibilites are endless. With websites like Youtube and Webshots, you could now have more interactive excercises in the textbook such as games or videos that would involve the student more. In conclusion, the benefits here are tremendous and besides having less work for the manufacturer, there seem to be almost no downside. Making textbooks a click away would truly change the environment of school and make it more enjoyable.

-Alex Osborne

Featured Entry - The Benefits of Raising Gas Prices

CBS market watch today reported an unhappy future for gasoline prices worldwide. As hinted at in the article appearing on the last test, natural gas production is going to be cut by OPEC countries (based on the belief that it is a highly elastic market). This will raise gas prices again, though probably not to the same levels we saw this summer. However (and I can say this now that I have to pay for gas) I don't think higher gas prices are such a bad idea. In fact, the American government should follow Europe's lead (perhaps looking to Great Britain as a prime example) and raise prices drastically through taxes. Not only would that promote changing in driving patterns, it would also raise much needed money for the government that could go to social programs, education, and, perhaps, researching alternative energy sources.

-Philip Waller

Featured Entry - Copyrighting a Name?

The Mongolian Parliament in Ulan Bator has, for the past few weeks, been thinking about a very interesting bill, one to "protect the name of Genghis Khan." The world-conquerer, whose name was banned under communist rule, has been used to endorse everything from vodka to toilet paper in the years following the downfall of the USSR. In a year-long, country-wide celebration of the remarkable man, the parliament has begun to question whether or not the myriad companies using the Khan's name are demeaning the national hero. Though, at first, this seems odd, even comic, the Mongols have a valid point. To use the national hero's name to try to shamelessly sell anything does take away from the majesty surrounding the most famous Mongol ever born. If the bill is passed, it will help to protect his legacy.

-Philip Waller

Featured Entry - College Spam

As I think back on the past year, there have been very few constants. However, one thing I could always be sure of was having one or two pieces of mail from colleges waiting for me at the Post Office. I've narrowed it down to there really being three types of this mail. The first is a greeting, a hello, an introduction. This type obviously makes business sense from the college's point of view as it increases the number of students who are aware of the college's existence (something very important if the college wants people to apply). The second type also makes sense, follow-up mail from colleges that I have expressed an interest in. The third, however, makes, to me, no sense whatsoever, second, third, fourth, fifth, or even sixth mailings from colleges that have never heard from me at all. Yes, by now I know their names, but their incessant mailings have hardly made it more likely that I will apply there. As I toss my sixth piece of 'college spam' from Hood into the recycling, I wonder just how much money must be wasted with all of these mailings. Perhaps this is one of the reasons for the high cost of a college education. The solution seems, to me, to be simple, to only send one piece of mail unless interest has been expressed. The money colleges will save from this practice will more than make up for the handful of students they might possibly miss out on.

- Philip Waller

Featured Entry - Marketing Strategies

I found an article online called “Heineken Tops 007 Fever”. It talks about the company’s new advertising campaigns linked to the new James Bond movie, Casino Royale. The commercial first showed up on YouTube a few weeks before the movie aired in London on November 14, 2006. There is a 55 country marketing campaign tied to Casino Royale. Many companies want to tie their name to the movie to increase sales and advertising. James Bond popularity gives companies incentive to connect with the film. The movie allows companies to reach a large-scale, international audience.
Also in the article was a little bit about Heineken’s marketing strategies. It is very interesting that unlike other companies, Heineken does not do all marketing with one company. Instead, they use dozens of ad-agencies and give them a template approved by Heineken headquarters. This allows them to support local ad agencies while keeping a somewhat uniform add. This technique, combined with the James Bond ties, gives Heineken the best of both worlds when it comes to marketing. The company’s technique is very smart because they support companies locally while working towards appealing to a much more global audience.

-Whitney Kamin

Featured Entry - Ticketmaster's Monopoly

TicketMaster is a problem. Ticketmaster is an automated capacity distibuter program for venues and arenas during shows and games. While on one hand very convenient, it is also strong reminder of why monopolies are no good. Last week, i purchased a ticket to a show in New York City that cost 20$ at the door. To secure my ticket, i decided to purchase it on ticketmaster. Instead of just giving me a 20$ ticket, they gave me a $20 ticket, a $6 convenience charge, $8 processing fee, and charged me $2 to print it out of my own printer. this brought my ticket to a grand total of $36. At a grand total of 36 dollars, it was almost twice the cost of the ticket. TicketMaster is making almost as much money as the cost of the band. this shows how a monopoly like ticketmaster has arbitrary control of the price of the ticket distribution service. At it's very best, the ticket distribution industry can be called an oligopoly becuase of services like LiveNation and Fidelity tickets. But the power of ticket control is still weilded and abused by these few.

-Louis DeSantis

Featured Entry - The Key to Success in Today's Market

Response to Article Designing a Business, Not Just a Product

The business and product article was very enlightening to read, since it demonstrates just how difficult it is to be successful in today's market. With the "niche market" developing, producers cannot just simply create a product and be finished with their work. They must advertise it, make sure it has an edge over its competitors, and most importantly, provide it with good complements while eliminating alternatives. This is no easy feat. The best example available of this, which is used by the article, is Apple with its iPod. Apple didn't just make an mp3 player, they went far beyond. They created an amazing complement in the iTunes service, where you can organize and purchase music. They made it accessible to many more people by creating different version like the Shuffle, Nano, and Video so that people could get some sort of iPod regardless of how much they were willing to spend. Also, Apple made it compatible with different computers, music files, and made it work no matter what you had. And it is much simpler to use and to transfer music to other mp3 players as well. And with new upgrades being released all the time, people are tempted to buy newer ones all the time, and Apple is able to increase their profits. Apple created a whole iPod business, not just an iPod, and that is the key to success in today's market.

-Ivan Kukharkin

Featured Entry - Is Advertising worth it?

Arsenal recently built a new stadium with the help of the company called Fly Emirates. The stadium cost them millions of dollars. Why did they (Fly Emirates) do it? Sure, their name will be plastered all over the stadium, will be written on Arsenal's jerseys, and the stadium itself will be name Emirates Stadium, but are these benefits worth the amount of money they spent? Will they be able to make a profit from this? What was their incentive? They spent an awful lot of money and it won't be easy to make that much from advertising. They will probably get more customers from the increased exposure, but it may not lead to the huge amount of profit, and this may cause them to lose money on the venture. It is possible that they have some sort of agreement with the team where they get a percentage of the profit or something along those lines, but that it unlikely because the sponsor usually gives money to the team not the other way around. Perphaps their incentive was the fact that Arsenal are a strong team, and they could perform well during the season, which would have a positive effect on both the team and the company. Fly Emirates had one huge cost spent on the stadium. Will the benefit be worth it?

-Ivan Kukharkin

Featured Entry - The PlayStation 3

The Playstation 3 has finally hit stores, and as expected, Sony's shipment is a disaster. There 400,000 consoles available at launch, but there were millions of people who were willing to pay the $500-$600 to get their hands on one. Now that is supply and demand gone totally awry. The PS3 has been profitable for retailers, but even more so for ebay sellers who took advantage of the low supply and sold their PS3's for over a grand. Unfortunately for the people that did not manage to get one, things are unlikely to improve anytime soon since Sony has only promised about 1 million units before the end of the year. Some hopeful people mentioned that waiting longer to buy would result in paying less, but the extremely limited supply makes a price decrease extremely unlikely anytime soon. While some people complain that it is too expensive for a gaming console; others view it as a bargain since it is also a Blu-Ray player (regular Blu-Ray players cost over $1000.) This is a good example of how mentality of the people changes the value of a product. The PS3 has also had quite a multiplier effect on other Sony products; PSP sales have tripled and PS2 sales have doubled since launch. It appears that Sony experienced the law of diminishing marginal returns when manufacturing the PS3 because they were unable to produce more than a certain number of the console. However, it is also possible that they are purposely withholding units in order to keep the price high and to keep more people interested in purchasing one. If that is the case, they are taking a big risk, but it may pay off in the long run.

-Ivan Kukharkin

Featured Entry - Fast Food

I beleive there should be some restrictions on fast food just as there are some for tobacco. Smoking is unhealthy and has been proven to cause many diseases, however, with the rising percentage of obese kids, obesity needs to be taken just as seriously as smoking. The percentage of our generation that is obese will hurt America in the long run. Obesity in the workforce causes employers to pay more for health care as obese people tend to be less efficient and miss more days of work. An idea that I thought would be a possibility would be to have an age requirement to eat fast food (Yes, imagine getting carded at a drive-thru). Obesity is really a huge problem for America and really needs to be adressed immediately. Our generation will be much less efficient if the percentage keeps growing. Another, more reasonable, option would be to tax fast food heavily just as cigarettes are. New York has just recently banned trans fats from restaurants which is certainly a first step in the right direction.

-Alex Osborne

Featured Entry - Taking Advantage of Obese America

As I was thinking about the whole obesity crisis and how technology has lead to its magnitude, I thought of the ultimate Couch Potatoe idea that has yet to be used. On iO and other digital cable channels there are specific channels to buy cars and browse houses yet there is one thing that is missing, which is vital to every couch potatoe : food. If iO created a channel that was like 706 - Domino's, where you could order pizza from your remote control and have it delivered to your door in 30 minutes, it would be a huge success. The advantages would be that the person would not have to get up and also since it is on TV you could have videos of each choice and a more detailed "menu" Payment options could vary but the easiest would be for it just to be added to your monthly cable bill. Just another idea on how to take advantage of "obese America"

-Alex Osborne

Featured Entry - Illegal Downloading

Kazaa and Me
I remember when I used Kazaa and things like that for the first time. Napster was first, IMesh was next (terrible selection) and then Kazaa and its spyware invaded my computer. Now, finally, my favorite "file sharing" tool Limewire is available. The article I read deals with the makers of Kazaa, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, and discussed their new joint-venture "The Venice Project". The file sharing network deals with video now, most likely television shows, and is expected to give iTunes a run for its money. I found myself asking doesn't iTunes already do the video thing? The answer, of course, is yea, iTunes does exactly this. Even better, in fact, that "The Venice Project" because those fortunate few with video ipods can take their Jack Bauers on the road or on the treadmill with them. So why create the Venice Project when there's already a very capable, if not better, system out there? Well, why not? It will only add billions more dollars on to the billionaire laps of Zennstrom and Friis, and the public might even benefit from it. Prices should go down so now we can watch Jack Bauer kick butt for $.98 instead of $1.06. A better question, I think, is why do people bother? Why don't people just do the right thing and tape that episode of 24? IS it because America is a nation based on impulse and consumers can't wait long enough for that episode to come back in the form of a rerun or syndication? That's fair enough, but then why not grab it off Limewire? Sure it's immoral but where were morals when Napster and .mp3 chatrooms in AOL ruled the world? Where were morals before that girl got sued for having something like 10,000 songs? Personally, I can say very few of the people I know buy music through iTunes anyway. I tried it, but paying didn't work for me. I know its wrong of me to take away that royalty a band would have made, but I think these artists can live with their millions of dollars anyway. Besides, it's well known that bands turn the most profit off concerts. So what's the alternative to buying a song? Getting it illegally. The cost for buying songs is time and money. The cost for downloading them is a fraction of a percent chance of getting caught, and a feeling a guilt that you cheated a millionaire out of his money. I think i'll take the guilt trip.

- Erik XXXX

Featured Entry - The Tradeoffs of Driving

I was thinking about a decision that I make every day. It may not be purely an economic decision, but it’s usually a reasoned decision at the least. The decision I’m talking about is the manner in which I drive to and from school. Actually, driving is a series of multiple decisions in which one must weigh the costs and benefits quickly. Do I hit the gas or the brake on yellow? Incentives for speeding up are the rush of an acceleration and time saved. Costs would be a marginal amount of wasted gas, the potential to get a ticket, and the possibility of having an accident. Depending on the circumstances (am I driving home, or am I driving to school?), I might make a different choice each time. In general I have to choose between safety and fun; between getting “there” early or late or not at all. It’s another version of a tradeoff. However, it is possible to strike a balance between the two extremes of caution and recklessness. For example, perhaps I won’t run any yellow lights, and I won’t go above 60 mph on highway curves, but I’ll allow myself to graze 70 mph on a flat straightaway with no cars close in front of me. In that case, I’m cautious when I need to be, but the risk is low when I do push the envelope a bit.

- Kunal

Featured Entry- Hubba's

Why is it that when I am famished on a Saturday night at one AM and I drive to my favorite late night chile hole in the wall I can't find a seat? Not only can I not find a seat, I can't even see the table. In the dead of night, this currrency clad rectangle, is a mob-scene. I feel that much like baseball's recent move to switch to variable pricing, Hubbas should too. During the day, when only the occasional Port Chesterian meanders in for food, the price for a bowl of chili should be fairly low. But when hordes of highschoolers flock to the cramped 12 seat box, the price should increase to the point at which no one is left standing waiting to pay money for food. This way the local customers are kept happy with the low day prices and maximum profit is squeezed from the wealthy high schooler of Rye and Harrison. Although I myself wouldn't want this price system I am proposing to be put into action, if I were Hubbas, I would do it

-Louis DeSantis

Welcome!

Welcome to Rye Country Day's Economic Blog. Here you will find work by students taking Economics.
Each student writes "journals" each week that reflect their economic standpoint on a certain issue and introduce their fresh perspective.
A big thanks to our amazing Economics teacher Mrs. Rees who has helped us throughout the year and influenced all of our economic minds.