1)    A search committee from the University of Florida is interviewing an English professor with a doctoral degree. The committee accidentally makes a discovery during the interview process, when they learn that this professor can use lawn care machinery with one percent more efficiency than anyone else currently employed at the college. Using the concepts of absolute advantage and comparative advantage, clearly explain why the professor should not be hired to work with the grounds crew.

2)    There is a general public perception that, since the Great Recession started, that prices for used cars have gone up, and the selection (quantity) of used cars available is down. Use supply and demand analysis to give a thoughtful and practical answer regarding why this is occurring.

3)    Assume there are no negative or positive externalities in a competitive market. Why would the intersection of supply and demand indicate allocative efficiency? Give a detailed answer using the concepts of total net benefit, consumer surplus, producer surplus, demand prices and supply prices.

4)    Evaluate the following statement: “Because monopoly results in economic inefficiency and in large profits for a few powerful corporations, we should enforce regulations to break up these firms or eliminate their profits.” Does it make any difference, for your answer, whether the monopoly firm with market power is in the health insurance industry or in the wireless communications industry?

5)    Do you think that there is any reason for government to treat agriculture any differently then retail sales, when it comes to economic policy? Explain the result of eliminating all price supports and subsidies (deficiency payments) to farmers. Would the result be greater allocative efficiency in food production? Would there be a tradeoff, in terms of an increase in farm poverty? Would there be any significant reason not to end all farm programs which originated in the 1930s with the intention of stabilizing agriculture, increasing commodity prices (or at least stopping them from falling) and supporting incomes of farmers?

6)    What is capitalism? Do not give a textbook answer or an offhand to this question, but give the richest possible “graduate student” definition that you can. Avoid clichés in giving your definition. Is this economic system successful, unsuccessful, sustainable or unsustainable? Has the nature of capitalism changed over the past few decades? Gather facts to support your answer.

7)    Write an essay explaining why “the Great Recession is great.” In your essay, take care to also explain why although the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) declared this recession over in June 2009, the economy has not returned to its previous state of activity before the recession started. Use information from “How A New Jobless Era Will Transform America,” Atlantic Monthly, March 2010. Also, use information from other news articles and slides posted on the course page. You may also use any other information sources, but be sure that your information is accurate. Don’t tell a story without facts, but also don’t provide facts without context or meaning. Weave the facts into the story and give them meaning. Remember, a number only has meaning in comparison to other numbers and if words tell you what the number means. Imagine you are informing someone you know who is not taking this course, deeply and accurately.

8)    It costs the U.S. Treasury's Bureau of Engraving and Printing less than six cents to print a note (currency), whether that bill is a one-dollar or one-hundred dollar bill. It seems the Treasury could generate a nice profit for the government by simply printing currency and using this currency to purchase the goods and services the government needs. It sounds like a simpler and more economical way for government to conduct its business than the ways and means government uses now to finance its activities. Comment on this idea, while applying your own enhanced reasoning, as a result of taking this course.

9)    Evaluate the following statement by Canadian social-scientist-at-large John Ralston Saul in his essay “The Miracle of the Loaves,” published in his work Voltaire’s Bastards (1993).

“Financial marketplaces have never been capable of self-limitation except through catastrophe. One of our accomplishments was to regulate these explosions out of existence. Financial deregulation has reintroduced them. A well-trained city dog kept within set parameters can look after itself for a limited period in limited circumstances. An untrained dog shows more initiative, but will inexplicably lick or bite children, run away, defecate on Persian rugs, demand endless scraps from the table and get run over. We have unleashed increasingly untrained dogs in highly urbanized settings. The regulatory authorities are therefore forced to stay on permanent emergency footing in order to avoid catastrophes, while these animals wander freely across intersections and through houses.”

a)    Is it fair to describe the deregulated financial activity in the U.S. banking and financial sector over the past decade, using this unflattering canine metaphor?
b)    Is this canine metaphor a valid argument for the kind of regulation that the U.S. governments imposed on the banking and financial sector from the stock market crash of 1929 until about 1999?

10)    Women’s wages, on average, are currently about 80 percent of men’s wages in the United States. Answer each of the following questions, regarding this pay difference.

a)    What are the reasons for the gap between male and female wages?
b)    Over the last thirty to forty years, has this wage gap been increasing or declining? You may have to do independent research on this question. How could the trend you report be either characterized as “good news” or “bad news” for all American workers?
c)    Does the persistence of a wage gap between female and male workers mean that American women are discriminated against in the U.S. labor market? Explain your answer carefully.

11)    Answer each of the following questions about poverty, inequality and the fate of the middle class in the United States.

a)    Who is poor? Who is middle class? Who is wealthy? Come up with original definitions based on some sort of measurable criteria whereby it would be possible to “file” every American in one category or the other – but not two or three categories at the same time.

b)    Explain the economic circumstances regarding the poverty rate, and also the distribution of income (or wealth) over the past forty years in the United States. Find the appropriate data to discuss these questions. Is the distribution of income (or the distribution of wealth) in the United States becoming more or less equal? (Realize the difference between income and wealth.) How much more or less equal? Is the rate of poverty increasing or decreasing?

c)    What is your judgment regarding the social and economic viability of the American middle class in the upcoming century? In order to answer this question, you should have a definition of the middle class in mind. [Express that definition in your answer.] You should also know and express what has happened in the past forty years to the American middle class, and then make your best forecast about the future viability of this “socioeconomic species.”

12)    Is higher education “the next bubble?” Gather facts from the handouts I placed on the course page. Give the argument that yes, it is. Give the argument that no, it is not. Apply your own enhanced reasoning to the question, as a result of taking this course and declare which side of the argument you agree with.

1)&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;A search committee from the Universit...

1) A search committee from the Universit...