2011 Georgia Econ Challenge Champs!

Ladies and gentleman, your 2011 Georgia Economics Challenge winners! All hail the Parkview Panthers! Super huge congratulations to coach Gary Petmecky and his team of students who came to the 2011 competition yesterday and walked away as champions.

Leading from start to finish, the Parkview Panthers bested a team from Northview High School in the quiz bowl competition to take home their fourth Georgia Economics Challenge championship.

Everyone go ahead and wish Parkview the best of luck as they are set to compete in the regional finals on April 27th. If they finish in the top six of regional competition they will move on to the national finals in New York City in May.

SMG Week Eight

With two to go the top of the heap looks like this...

1st place- Oliver Elementary, $158,310.00
2nd place- Mt. Zion (Carroll County), %145,407.00
3rd place- Morgan County High, $132,493.00
4th place- Archer High, $130,586.00
5th place- Mountain View High, $129,457.00

...stay tuned.

The Press Conference

Sort of huge news from the Fed. It was just announced that starting in April Chairman Bernanke will start participating in press conferences four times a year. This should please the folks who regularly complain that the Fed is not transparent enough.

I'm thinking they should take this a step further and turn it into some sort of reality tv show. Imagine if we had Ryan Seacrest join Mr. Bernanke once a month on a stage in Hollywood. They could take calls from random Americans who spent their entire week researching the many minutia of Fed policy and history. We could call it "Stumping Ben" and the person who could ask the chairman a monetary policy question that he could not answer in 30 seconds or less would win a trip to the district bank of their choice.

The suspense would be incredible. I can almost picture Ryan Seacrest saying, "All right Katie from Des Moines, Iowa, if Ben cannot answer your question about quantitative easing you are going to be on your way to the Kansas City Fed and District 10!"

A Dilemma for a Prisoner

When was the last time you had "story time" with your students? Been awhile right? How about next week you fire this podcast up and let your students hear a little something about the prisoner's dilemma AND the Cold War? Very interesting mix of econ and history.

SMG Week Seven

Back and forth we go. Week seven brings more movement in the top five.

1st place...Archer High $147,486.00
2nd place...Mountain View High $139,906
3rd place...Oliver Elementary $138,004.00
4th place...Mount Zion High (Carroll County) $133,148.81
5th place...Mount Zion High (Carroll County) $120,358.00

TED (Econ clips)

For those of you who check in regularly, or semi-regularly, you may recall seeing the occasional TED lecture series video posted to the blog. The TED lecture series never fails to disappoint and the lecturers always make you think, ponder and question the norm.

The good folks at accountingdegree.com have compiled a list (with links) to 15 top economics themed TED lectures. Give them a look and turn your students on to what TED has to offer.

SMG Week Six

Six down and only four more to go. Mount Zion High School from Carroll County is once again in the top slot...but only by a few dollars.

Your top five...

1st place- Mt. Zion High with $151,850.00
2nd place- Mountain View High with $151,607.00
3rd place- Oliver Elementary with $142,443.00
4th place- Morgan County High with $133,413.00
5th place- Mt. Zion High with $129,713.00

Best of luck the rest of the way everyone!

Rich!

It's that time of year again everyone. Nope, I'm not talking March Madness. I'm talking Money Madness. Here it is.....your Forbes "World's Billionaires" list.

Now go ahead and sit around all day wondering why you didn't think of facebook.

The Classroom Economist

The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta has just released a great new feature called "The Classroom Economist." The first topic covered is inflation. Watch as 2010 Georgia Economics Teacher of the Year, and former Econ Blog contributor, Michael Melvin demonstrates an inflation auction lesson to a class of students. The lesson, which is as rock-solid as they come, will help to answer the "Why don't we just print more money to "fix" the economy?" question you hear from time to time.

Another great feature is the "Chat with the Economist" video that accompanies the lesson demonstration. Fed Economist Mike Bryan does a masterful job in explaining the root causes of inflation while talking about historical instances of hyperinflation and its numerous negative consequences.

SMG Week Five

Half way to the finish line and we have a little movement in the top five spots. Perennial power Oliver Elementary has rocketed to the #1 spot.

1st...Oliver Elementary- $161,208.00
2nd...Mountain View High- $146,789.00
3rd...Mount Zion High- $144,121.00
4th...Parkview High- $144,059.00
5th...Alexander High- $129,132.00

...to be continued.

Your Weekend Reading

The "secret sauce of Western civilization" edition.

What is a Teacher Worth?

With all that is going on in Wisconsin (No, I'm not talking about the Packers) I thought this article would be great to share with all of your friends......and maybe even your enemies named Walker. If you have the time giving the podcast a go might also be a good idea. If you have even more time go ahead and read Eric Hanushek's interesting and informative paper.

How do you place a monetary value on teaching. What is good teaching and what is it worth?