Chapter 6

I would give this chapter a rating of one. Now that we have worked a lot with the principles of supply and demand learning the theoretical side of economics in these chapters has become easier and easier. This chapter was easy to grasp because it focused mostly on the theoretical side of things. While I don't remember how to exactly do the calculations, or all of the vocabulary, we cover that most of the time in class. I do well with approaching the subject at home, and getting myself thinking, and then tackling the more in depth and mathematical aspects in class. I always love getting to learn the governments role in economics, and how policies can have many different untended consequences. The general theme seems to be regulating equity vs. equality but that is not always the case. I look forward to talking about the chapter in class.

Crisis Actors

When I started reading the article I was very confused as to what was going on, however, reading further past the pictures and examples I saw what the author was getting at. How governments can deceive and control people through fear. One of the ten economic principles is that rational people think at the margin. Most people would definitely like to think that they are rational, but the truth is, humans are terrible at thinking rationally. The first example that comes to my mind, and is touched upon by the author as well is terrorism. Terrorism, or rather, your risk of dying in a terrorist attack is extremely small. Yet it's something that many worry about every day, even though your much more likely to be hit by a car or die some other way. The effects of terrorism are huge only because people let it have those effects. It's even in the name. Terror. If you thought at the margin, terrorism would be way less scary than most think it is now. But we're all human, and that fear of the unexpected is what allows it to have so much power. That's how crisis actors can give so much power to the government. The author does sound a bit stuck up, or maybe high and mighty, but there is truth to what they're saying. I won't try to say that I'm exempt from they're talking about, even if I believe that its less than others(or I hope it is).

Chapter 5

Chapter 5 was similar to the last chapter as far a difficulty went for me. I understand the concepts of elasticity for supply and demand, and it was actually something I was wondering about in chapter 4, specifically, how charging more or less can maximize profits. I would give the chapter a 1.5 because some of the more in depth topics were hard for me to understand the first time around. I now know how a supply or demand graph could be curved and not just a straight line. Obviously some goods are more elastic than others, as I'd be willing to pay a lot for water to drink, but not a lot for a scoop of ice cream. The math this chapter seemed simple but some of the graphs were a bit confusing, especially because there were so many of them. I also noticed how it would be hard to accurately judge where to set your prices in a business, more so if it is a small one.

Chapter 4

Supply and Demand

As I read through the chapter my opinion of its difficulty kept changing. The initial ideas of supply and demand seemed easy enough, but once they were telling me about the way that the demand and supply curves change I started to get confused. Reading the summary at the end however reinforced the ideas I had/knew and I felt like I got a good reading on the chapter overall. I'd give it a 2, and I still need to review all the vocabulary terms that were used. The concept seems simple. Supply and demand are intertwined with prices and production. As the demand for a good goes up, so will the price. At first I thought that firms would just make more of that good and enjoy more profits, but the example the textbook gave related to scarcity. Because not everyone can get a certain product the prices will raise until the demand for the product drops and vice versa. If the demand drops so will the prices. An example that I could think of will be the new iPhone 7 that's coming out. People will wait in huge lines to pay 650$ for a phone because the demand is high. Once demand subsides then the price should start to drop.