From SmartMoney, here's a fun article about the 10 Things the Super Bowl Won't Say. For the purposes of the quiz you will only be accountable for the first one, "Good luck getting a ticket." However, Texas Tech gets a mention on number 7 so read on if you'd like. 

What is going on in the background that drives the ticket price this high? How does scarcity factor into this scenario? Is the price of a ticket somehow sending a signal to consumers?

From the WSJ's Real Time Economics. This is an interesting look at how professional economists and average Americans differ in answering some important questions. Did any of the answers surprise you? On the 'Buy American' provisions, why do you think there is such a disparity between the answers of Americans and economists? 

Before we get into studying supply and demand, let's play a little ECO 2301 vs. Economists. The poll is on the home page and the questions is, "All else equal, making drugs illegal raises street prices for those drugs because suppliers require extra compensation for the risk of incarceration and other punishments." 

As we will see, the way an economy operates from country to country can vary greatly. One of the key facets to this variation is economic freedom. In fact, many argue that freedom is the means by which progress is achieved. This article talks about how Twitter is planning to deal with these cross country differences. What do you suppose will be the impact of Twitter adopting this technology? Similar to the previous article that concerned China, is Twitter obligated to conform to American standards? Or, should they have the freedom to censor and pursue wider markets? 

Positive economic statement: Government assistance has increased over the past three years regardless of educational attainment.
Normative economic statement: I'll leave this for you in the comments section.

How do you interpret this graph? Has the increase in government aid been equitable to all groups? Should it be? ,

Here is a great article on how many Apple products have been made. For this article you will only be accountable for reading the first page, if you would like to keep reading please feel free to. Perhaps the line that stood out to me the most was that "Made in America" is no longer a viable option. If Apple were to move their operations back, what do you expect would happen to the price of iPhones, iPads, etc...? Assuming that the price of labor is more expensive in America, which it is, what would be the effect of such a move on the demand for Apple products or the supply of Apple products? Using a supply and demand graph, could you show this?

Here are a few additional questions I would like you to consider.
 - From an economic standpoint, does it make sense to use cheapest possible labor?
 - From an ethical standpoint, do you feel that Apple is obligated to produce in any one country?

Here is your first current events posting to follow, and the school year hasn't even started! On this blog I'll post a variety of news and news related items such as articles, graphics, and podcasts (like this one) that will complement our work in the classroom. I've made the website so that it is easy to "follow" either by following @ttuecoblog on twitter, or by subscribing to the RSS feed on the right (below the twitter box). To get to the article or podcast simply click the green highlighted word and you will be taken to that page.

According to Freakonomics authors, money doesn't buy everything. Not even votes in an election. Why not? What do the broadcasters mean by "correlation does not mean causation?" Are there any examples from your own life where you thought that if one thing happened another was bound to? Feel free to provide some examples in the comments, and don't be ashamed to post you lucky underwear-wearing Cowboys fans!