Day 84

Final Assessment!

...and course evaluations.

Day 83 (Tuesday)

We wrapped up reviewing for the Final Assessment, which will take place tomorrow (Wednesday the 12th). Today's reviewed topics included the Great Recession, inherent and contradictory rights, Protectionism, and opportunity cost.

We learned about the economic term Cost-benefit Analysis. We graphed it, considered calculus tools, and watched a clip from Seinfeld depicting an analysis by George. Then the students considered a future decision of their own and conducted an analysis.

We're wrapping the course up this week, the students need to have their third paper in by Friday.

Day 82

Today's review went over the supply and demand of money involving interest rates, and how the Fed manipulates the interest rates. We also reviewed one of the principle causes of the Great Depression, i.e. the significant increase in the money supply beginning in 1914 with the bubble bursting in '29.

We learned about the entrepreneurial mindset of discovering one's comparative advantage as well as products/services that consumers want. Students were challenged to consider their passions and comparative advantages and which ones might lead to a product others would be willing to trade for.

After the break we watched a short controversial clip that claims that "Copying is not theft". The class was fairly split on their opinions of the clip after some somewhat heated debate.

Day 81

Today's review went over the definition of inflation, who creates it, how it's a redistribution of wealth, and who benefits from it. We also reviewed the method of modern money creation and the inherent problem with the debt problem.

Stephen Colbert makes light of Ron Paul and the Gold Standard so the students enjoyed analyzing such clips.

After the break a student led a class discussion on a New World Order and the depopulation argument.

Day 80

Today's review covered the history and development of fractional-reserve banking, and then paternalism.

We watched some clips about the year 2010 in review, some clips about future predictions regarding population growth, the environment, etc. and then the students made some predictions of their own for 2011.

How big is a trillion dollars? http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html

One of the quotes discussed after the break came from my favorite book of all time: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."

Day 79

Today we continued reviewing for the Final Assessment, today's review included the roles of savings, investment, and capital leading to legitimate growth, as well as moral hazards in our society.

We discussed the education paradigm of our modern nation and some major education issues, such as public choice and per-pupil spending.

The students were given 45 minutes to work on their last papers for the semester.

Day 78

Today we commenced reviewing for the final assessment which will be given next Wednesday. We will be reviewing a few concepts each day.

On the topic of education, one student led a discussion that mostly revolved around alternative education. This discussion naturally led to the economics of choice, and protectionism, and the market for degrees.

The students were given 45 minutes to read as they are each working towards completing the 3 papers due by next week.

Day 77 (Monday, Jan 3)

Today we welcomed the students back by telling some stories from the break. The students filled out a paper stating the percentage of their break that was productive, then told about their best day, as well as the opportunity cost of the activities that day. We then read them and guessed which activity belonged to which student.

After the break a student led a discussion based on his quote that dealt with shady business practices even though they may be "legal".

Students were given 30 minutes to read. Each student has until next Wednesday to prepare for the final assessment as well as turn in their 3rd paper (and 2nd if they've yet to turn it in).

Day 76 (Friday, Dec 17)

Twas a day of merriment for the students, along with a shortened class due to an assembly. Some students read, others discussed, and others played games while munching on the potluck snacks that other students provided.

Day 75

Started off with learning about some of the basic tenets of Keynesian Economics, in contrast to pseudo-Austrianism.

Read further from our Capitalism book regarding the tragedy of the commons, Rhinos vs Cattle, and the pollution of the state.

The Federal Reserve sent me a publication to read to the students titled Wishes and Rainbows. I read the cartoon aloud and then we tried to figure out what in the world it means.

After the break a student led a discussion regarding the how and why behind self-betrayal.

Day 74

Started the day off with some light reading from Robert's Capitalist pig book, regarding affirmative action and the right to association.

Today's internet clips regarded the budget, hedge fund managers, and the daily debacle between media pundits, namely Glenn Beck and Jon Stewart.

Forest Raby conducted a discussion based on two quotes he pulled from Tolkien regarding the real meaning behind things.

Some students chose to read for the remainder of the class while others continued their discussions.

Day 73

Started off class with another (another!) quiz on Keynesian stimulants.

Read about Child Labor laws and the minimum wage (or How to create unemployment).

We had some performers reciting poems, etc.

Read for 45 minutes.

Day 72

Today we started off with a quiz reviewing interest rates and their role in the Boom Bust Cycle. The students were to describe to me the effects that an artificially low interest rate would have on both consumers and firms.

We learned about a 2nd cause of the Boom Bust Cycle, that being artificial monetary stimulus (money creation).

We watched some clips from the web regarding these topics, particularly the Daily Show's Big Bank Theory.

We read from our Capitalism book regarding the salaries of athletes and CEOs.

After the break a student led a discussion regarding some quotes from Bastiat's The Law, regarding what legal plunder is and whether we should fight it or take part in it. The discussion went well for those who participated.

Day 71

Started off class with a quiz reviewing the previous few days materials, namely on interest rates, price controls, and market distortions regarding consumers, firms, and banks.

Simulated the daily bind that the U.S. treasury faces as bonds mature. Who will lend to us today? How much will we have to borrow from the Fed? Will people notice?

Discussed the paternalism aspect found in the movie My SIster's Keeper.

After the break Isaiah Slemons led us in a discussion regarding some quotes on taxes and the national debt.

Day 70

Continued learning about interest rates, price controls, and how the Fed unintentionally(?) creates the Boom & Bust cycle.

Kate James led a discussion based on a quote that ended up occupying the whole of the 2nd half of class.

Day 69

We began laying the groundwork for understanding the Federal Reserve's role in creating the Boom & Bust cycle, namely via the price controls of interest rates. Today we started with the Role of Prices as Signals, Supply, Demand, Equilibrium price, Shortages and Surpluses, and the mess that happens when you disrupt price signals through price controls.

Day 68

Started class off with a review quiz. The students were to finish one of the following sentences: 1) Capitalism (a free market) encourages racism in that it... OR 2) Capitalism discourages racism in that it...

We then continued discussion of our class Political Orientation quiz.

For any students slightly interested in studying statistics I showed them a cool video that portrays statistics in a great light: http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2010/12/200-countries-and-200-years-in-4.html

We began some introductory reading on some causes of the Great Depression, according to Murphy's Capitalism book.

The students each signed up for a particular day in which they are to bring a quote of their choosing, any topic, and lead a class discussion on that topic.

Day 67

We started class off by discussing the 10 Planks of Communism according to Karl Marx. We talked about the similarities and differences to today's U.S. economy.

We watched the first half of an economic rant by Max Keiser at RT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTdLgtzD9eU

After the break we simulated Fractional Reserve Banking through a game of musical chairs. First we had enough chairs for each student, which after a few rounds the students weren't exactly in a "panic" to sit down. But then we decided to switch to a fractional reserve system where each chair represented 10 students, so yes, we only had two chairs. When the music stopped, talk about PANIC! Not only were there many losers, but there were many crashes as well.

The students received a grade report that should be signed by a parent or guardian.

Day 66

Service Day: the students put together hygiene kits/toy boxes for a homeless shelter.

Day 65

Read, from Capitalism (Murphy's Book) which today again touched on the knowledge problem of social planning.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/366029/november-17-2010/old-people-in-space this video clip touches on the debt/Social Security/Medicare debacle we are facing.

Here are some scare tactics for the children. Yes they did point out the various propaganda tactics to me. It is mostly scary in that it recently happened to Argentina, in a like manner. The day the dollar died: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N8gJSMoOJc

The students recently had questions about this: Obama's entourage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsLIZYeU_cQ

read from Capitalism pg 29 to discuss Bastian's photo about racism etc. There are many accusations that Capitalism is racist, greedy, unfair, and economically inefficient and leads to ill consequences. Pg 29 had a refutation for these accusations. Have your student relate these to you.

Day 64

We listened to our President's weekly address from the White House. http://www.whitehouse.gov/

We also watched a visual on another philosophical/economic orientation: http://isil.org/resources/introduction.swf

We discussed the irony in the following commercial ad from GM: http://cafehayek.com/2010/11/we-all-fall-down.html

As a follow up to yesterday's reading from Murphy's Capitalism book regarding the knowledge problem associated with central planning we read and discussed the following short pamphlet: http://fee.org/library/books/i-pencil-2/

The students were able to read for 45 minutes at the end of class. The students received the assignment to converse with someone regarding this comic and bring to class one counter-argument.

Day 63

We discussed as a class a potential Political Orientation quiz that we as a class create and then distribute throughout the school, simply to give us a feel for both the awareness and orientation of Paradigm in general.

We read from Murphy's Capitalism book, once again only a few paragraphs. We discussed the wealth of today's middle class compared to a medieval king, the lack of knowledge involved in central planning, and profits as signals.

Why did we decide to bail out and prop up GM but not the horse and buggy industry? Why not the candle makers? What determines who gets to fail?

I offered the students extra credit in the form of memorizing the poem The Gods of the Copybook Headings.

Day 62 (Monday 29th)

We started off with some Black Friday story telling. These will come in handy when we study Prices as Signals.

The students finalized plans for this Friday's Service Day. The students will be donating and putting together Christmas boxes for refugees.

The students showed off their posters on the Fed. Clever ideas.

We read for the first time from our latest book, Robert Murphy's The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism. We only read about 4 paragraphs because each sentence sparked debate.

Day 61 (Wednesday 25th)

Students continued their work on their class posters on this shortened day.

Day 60 (Tuesday 23rd)

Today the students were given the formal assessment on the Federal Reserve. The following were the questions:

1. In 1913 Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act. Discuss the events leading up to its creation

2. What were some claims as to why the U.S. needed a central bank (state at least 3)?

3. Some people claim that the Fed is private, others that it is public (government run). Explain each argument:

4. The Fed has 3 main tools for influencing the money supply, what are they and how do they affect the money supply?

5. Some people claim the Fed is unconstitutional, what is their reasoning?

6. Explain how the Fed enables the very problem that led to its creation (be sure to describe the problem too):

7. Has the Fed been able to achieve its goals that were the reason for its creation? List at least 4 goals, and support your argument with examples:

8. Why is the Fed called the Lender of Last Resort? What are the pros and cons of having such a lender?

9. Crazy Mr. Gee thinks the Federal Reserve is largely to blame for the oversea wars since its inception. What’s his nutcase argument?

The students then worked on their Fed posters for the rest of the period.

Day 58-59

“Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”

santiz Hermann Goering In connection to our study of the Federal Reserve we have touched lightly on its role in war. The above quote was simply a discussion starter. We also discussed the following claims made by a particular capitalist pig, Robert Murphy: -greed is good -CEO's deserve their high salary, so do athletes -minimum wage laws hurt the poor -child labor laws aren't necessary -borders hurt the economy -outsourcing is good for all of us Most found these claims to be false, and quite audacious. The students have been asked to bring them up sometime over the Thanksgiving break and record what they learned in their conversations.

Day 57

Some interesting links discussed:

http://www.economist.com/content/global_debt_clock

http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/california-will-default-on-its-debt-says-chris-whalen-535616.html;_ylt%3DAlLFqD9Ki3tEvJ0PMiU2ANK7YWsA;_ylu%3DX3oDMTE1cTZsOG92BHBvcwM2BHNlYwN0b3BTdG9yaWVzBHNsawNjYWxpZm9ybmlhd2k-?tickers=^dji,^gspc,^ixic,^tnx,tlt,tbt&sec=topStories&pos=3&asset=&ccode=

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101117/ap_on_bi_ge/us_fed_stimulus

We finished our Federal Reserve publication. There were many ironies, like the picture at the left. I think the students begrudgingly enjoyed it.

After the break we took a quiz w/o notes in preparation for next week's formal assessment on the federal reserve.

Day 56

...consisted of reviewing everything thus far covered concerning the Federal Reserve policy and origins. The majority of the students seem to have a good handle on the basic principles behind why the Fed does what it does.

We discussed a slide show of political cartoons regarding QE2, then watched another 10 minute documentary concerning the Federal Reserve and money creation. Hopefully the students get sick of learning about the Fed to the point where they can regurgitate everything about it in a logical manner.

Students should be preparing for a formal assessment covering the Federal Reserve. This will be one of the few assessments where students are not allowed to use notes, as I believe the principles should be understood rather than memorized. Principles are easier to understand than facts.

Day 55

We started things off with a pop quiz on the three main tools of monetary policy used by the Federal Reserve.

We continued reading a basic publication from the Federal Reserve concerning how they conduct monetary policy.

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2010/11/06/number-of-the-week-102-trillion-in-global-borrowing/

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits-graphic.html?hp

http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2010/11/help-me-find-photographer.html

www.thedailyshow.com/

We discussed the above links throughout class.

Day 51-53 (10th-12th)

We've been continuing our study of the institution that is the Federal Reserve, both its origin and its modern day structure. We've discussed the three main tools of conducting monetary policy, namely Open Market Operations, the Discount Window, and Reserve Requirements. Students should understand how each works and how each affects the money supply.

Wednesday I asked the students to write about their personal opinion concerning what course of action the Federal Reserve/U.S. will eventually take: debt monetization, default, or an era of major spending cuts and higher taxes.

Day 50 (Tuesday, 9th)

We started off with a refresher quiz on the debt/interest cycle between the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury, as well as the ratio principle of inflation/deflation between aggregate supply and the money supply.

The students previously had chosen a quote from the Penny Candy book and now they were given time to write about it in their commonplace books. We discussed them afterwards.

A few students shared their papers they have written so far.

Post-break discussion consisted of the privatization of roads, forfeiture of rights, and human nature in times of crisis.

Day 49 (Monday, 8th)

To start things off the students took a review quiz on the fundamentals of banking prior to the Federal Reserve. As a class we then reviewed the nasty cycle of the U.S. Treasury borrowing from the Federal Reserve, and the whirlwind of debt and interest.

In order to better picture the effects of inflation/deflation, we discussed the principle of ratios, particularly the ratio of aggregate economic goods to the whole money supply, and the effect of their respective growth rates.

Day 48 (Friday, 5th)

Today's assembly concerned commemorating the death of soldiers fighting for our country. To continue the topic we watched a short documentary exploring the role of the Federal Reserve in the foreign wars of the last century.

After the break some students went to the Writing Center to work on their papers, and others continued to read their books.

Day 47

Today consisted of finishing up Maybury's book, some light propaganda, and reading/writing time. The chapters today discussed the level of freedom and law in various countries with Hong Kong scoring the highest and North Korea the lowest.

Day 46

Today we started off with a quote, "Give me control over a nation's currency and I care not who makes its laws." The students discussed it for a bit before writing their thoughts in their commonplace book.

We continued to wrap up Maybury's penny book. Today's chapter dealt with the economic fallacies of the Great Depression and WWII.

We looked at "fractional reserve banking in one picture", continued to discuss the Federal Reserve's role in fractional reserve banking, and we followed this up with an actual publication of the NY Fed titled The Story of Banking.

We talked about the breaking news: the Fed announced its decision to practice some more quantitative easing, to the tune of $900 billion.

Day 45 (Monday)

We're on the verge of wrapping up Maybury's penny book. I think it has been very effective in sparking the students' interest in a simple, concise way. Yesterday's chapter discussed causes of the "Great Recession" and a brief summary of the book thus far.

We discussed the literal definition of propaganda, then we viewed a few examples of propaganda regarding taxes during times of war, and then some regarding the creation of the Federal Reserve.

We watched a DVD provided by the New York Federal Reserve as their effort to explain how the Federal Reserve, something that is hard to do in 14 minutes.

The students were given about 35 minutes to read and work on their papers.

Day 39 - Day 44 (Oct. 29)

I apologize for getting behind. During this time we have continued to focus on the structure of the banking system, getting into fractional reserve banking and leading up to the creation of the Federal Reserve, the United States' central bank.

Wednesday the class went with much of the school to see the documentary "I Want Your Money". This led to multiple discussions since then concerning the portrayal of politicians and political economy, as well as the real definition of propaganda and why it carries a bad connotation.

As an experiment we took a political orientation quiz, simply going off majority vote. A lot of interesting stuff came from this, including the realization of how inefficient majority vote processes can be.

Day 38 (Thursday, Oct. 21)

Today's reading from Maybury's book covered a fictional example of how a financial bubble comes about, focusing on "get rich quick" incentives.

We discussed headlines around the world surrounding the currency wars.

We reviewed yesterday's discussion on fractional reserve banking by watching a short video that draws it out, step by step.

Students read the 2nd half of class while I interviewed them one at a time concerning their book and the upcoming paper.

Day 37

Today we started off class discussing some headlines, namely a particular Spanish town that declared bankruptcy, as well as Britain's claim to have cut spending by 89 billion pounds.

We read a chapter out of Maybury's book regarding runaway inflation, also known as hyperinflation, particularly how it gets started and why it continues. We looked at hyperinflation in recent history.

Today's banking lesson went in-depth to show just how exactly fractional reserve banking works, as well as its role in increasing the money supply.

The students were given 35 minutes of personal reading time.

Day 36

How is inflation a form of taxation? What are some instances where one can benefit from inflation? Such are the questions we started off discussing today.

We read chapter 5 as a class from Maybury's Penny book. It talked about money creation stemming from the promises candidates make in an effort to win over voters. It also discussed inflation as an ethical issue.

We continued our discussion of the history of the banking system, getting into the workings of fractional reserve banking.

After the break the students read from their personal reading book.

Day 35 (Oct 13)

Today the students reported on their discussions with parents concerning if they're going to vote, who they're going to vote for, and why. If parents preferred not to talk about it then that is not a problem.

We read some articles from a few years ago that predicted today's financial crisis and we examined the economic principles behind the predictions.

The 2nd half of the day was spent interviewing individual students concerning their book of choice for the coming week.

Day 34

Today we started off class by watching a few short clips regarding things we've been discussing lately, such as taxes, debt, and bailouts. We also browsed the websites of the various gubernatorial candidates and their stances on particular issues.

We then read from Maybury's book regarding inflation and had an in-depth discussion afterwards about the redistributive effects of non-uniform inflation.

After the break we watched the documentary that Mr. Bastian's film class has put together thus far.

We then went to the library to browse possible books. I will meet with each student individually to finalize their reading contract.

Day 33

Today we started off by discussing the following quotes:

"The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment." -Richard Hutchins

"The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter." -Winston Churchill

We also discussed the idea of Rational Ignorance.

This led into our assignment concerning candidate research. Each student was assigned to research the Utah candidates running for governor, senate, and the house of representatives from the applicable district. We talked about a few of them and their stances on health care, immigration, taxes, etc.

The students are supposed to talk with their parents/legal guardians regarding whether they're going to vote, who for, and why.

In an effort to further customize the curriculum to each individual student we are going to alter our approach, at least as far as the English credit for this class is concerned. Each student will make a short list of books they would personally like to read, preferably a classic or otherwise "significant". Together with the mentor the student will pick a book from that list and set up a contract specifying a finish deadline and a specific type of paper to be written, among other things. Large portions of the last period of the day will be spent reading from this book. As needed, students will individually go to the Writing Center for personalized help in writing their paper.

Day 32 (Friday)

The students wrote in their commonplace regarding their future career aspirations. Specifically they were asked to write on the following:

-what would you like to get paid to someday do?

-what skills are necessary?

-what knowledge is necessary?

-what level/type of education is necessary?

-what can you do so that customers/employers choose your services over that of the next?

With our minds on our future careers we then had a guest speaker talk to us about our technical writing skills, particularly with resumes and emails.

Day 31 (Thursday)

Today we continued our reading of Maybury's book. The 2nd half of class was spent in the Writing Center where we reviewed proper MLA letter format. The students were then free to search for a news publication (article) of their choosing to which they would write a formal reply, as in a letter to the editor. We will work on producing the letter in final draft form this week.

Day 30 (Wednesday)

We discussed the question "Can something be SO important that it justifies forcing a man to pay for it?"

This discussion led to many topics such as the National Arts Foundation, Health Care, etc.

We discussed about an assignment due Monday. The students are to research the candidates running for office in this November's elections. Specifically they are to research those running for governor, senate, and representatives (congressional) for their district. Certain topics to pay attention to would be positions on budget, health care, immigration, taxes, and any others the students may be interested in.

Day 29 (Tuesday)

We started off class with peer reviews our individual letters to the editor that we typed up the day before.

We finished our reading of Bastiat's That Which Is Seen & and That Which Is Unseen. We discussed various scenarios such as the disbanding of troops, taxes, the arts, and public works.

We went to the library to return the book and to pick up Richard Maybury's Whatever Happened to Penny Candy.

Day 28 (Monday)

As an extension of last week's documentary we took some time to discuss our nation's budget crisis, the debt that currently stands at 13.5 trillion dollars.

We read together an example of an article from the L.A. Times as well as a corresponding letter to the editor. The students then continued to work on their own mock letter regarding an article chosen from a newspaper.

For the 2nd half of class we went to the writing center to type up the rough draft.

Day 27

Today we continued our newspaper assignment of finding an article and writing up a rough draft of an op-ed submission. For example, one student found an op-ed where a man is complaining that if states no longer have a monopoly on liquor stores then they will lose out on revenue. This could be an example of Bastiat's Seen/Unseen principle. What is seen is that the government will lose out on the immediate revenue. What is unseen are the new vendors that may come about as a result of the free entry/exit aspect of the market, with greater competition usually leading to lower prices, which given the Laffer curve argument may result in overall greater tax revenue. Not to mention the tax dollars that will be freed up from not having to run the liquor stores, run usually in a less efficient manner.

We wrapped up class with a documentary on the nation's debt crisis: Frontline's (PBS) Ten Trillion and Counting

Day 26

Today we started off by discussing two different quotes, then writing in our commonplace books our thoughts.

"A society that puts equality ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom." -Milton Friedman

"There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him." -Robert Heinlein

We then continued looking at and interpreting various political cartoons.

The students began working on a particular news article assignment. The students are to find a article from the newspaper that relates in some way to the concepts and ideas we've been discussing in class lately. They will then write a 200 word paper concerning their opinion, as if they were writing a letter to the editor.

Day 25

Today we read from Bastiat's small publication That Which Is Seen and That Which Is Unseen, specifically his Broken Window Fallacy. We then watched two short clips concerning the fallacy which can be found here and here.

The 2nd half of class we took a sizable quiz concerning the latest terms we've been discussing in addition to character profiles that were presented by the students.

Day 24

We had our final discussion of Schiff's book where we talked about America going off of the gold standard, the current debt crisis, and China's relationship with America. We then returned the book and picked up our next read, Bastiat's That Which Is Seen and That Which Is Not Seen.

After the break we viewed various financial comic strips on the internet, discussing them and applying them to current concepts we've been learning such as Capitalism, Socialism, moral hazard, Social Security, debt, paternalism, ponzi schemes, etc.

We ended the day with 35 minutes of reading.

Day 23

Today we went over some pending assignments. As a wrap up to our Service Day the students are to interview various mentors concerning their Service Day activity. We hope to improve upon our own future Service Day by doing our homework in preparation for it.

The students are also supposed to bring a newspaper Wednesday.

We continued discussing excerpts from Schiff's book.

We watched a slide show about me (Mr. Gee) to help the students get to know me better.

After discussing the upcoming quiz on terms and character profiles we went over the economic principle of Opportunity Cost.

Day 22 Service Day

Students donated time and resources to make receiving blankets for the local hospital.

Perhaps the biggest lesson learned as a result of this was the difficulty of organizing, in idea and purpose, groups of individuals differing in taste and motive. The time it took to gather ideas, come to conclusions, discover obstacles, regroup, come up with more ideas, and eventually decide on a service activity took more time than was actually spent serving. This also gave us the opportunity to consider one aspect of the term "profitable". Were our time and resources used effectively? What does it mean to be profitable?

Day 21

Referring to Schiff's book we discussed the economics behind immigration. Does immigration help/hurt an economy? How so? How much of it is political? Why do the border guards of North Korea face one direction? Why does the U.S. spend so much on immigration control?

We quickly reviewed the terms and people that will be on Monday's quiz.

35 minutes of reading today. Students should be finished with Schiff's book.

Day 20

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." -Thomas Jefferson

The discussion of the above quote ended up taking the first half of class. We touched on the concepts of paternalism, moral hazards, the Nanny State, and a whole lot in between.

The second half of class was spent finalizing Service Day plans and then we read for 30 minutes.

Day 19

Our class presidency led us in a discussion to decide what we want to do as a class service project. We experienced firsthand the difficulties in organizing, coming to agreements, and dealing with some minor red-tape issues.

John Maynard Keynes was our sole character profile today by Nathan Shaw.

Day 18

Recap of Freddie Mac and other GSEs.

Continued with character profiles: Alan Greenspan, Rockefeller, Adam Smith

Went to the library for a tutorial on improving our research skills.

Day 17

Introductory lesson to supply and demand, using fresh, crispy gala apples and homemade chocolate chip cookies. Discussed price controls (ceilings and floors), equilibrium pricing, and shortages/surpluses.

Character profiles: Freddie Mac (Josh Fitzgerald), Ben Bernanke (Jake Ryan).

Day 16 (Sept. 16)

Today we held an auction for classroom real estate. The students really got involved, perhaps more than even I expected. The high bid was for lot #14, going for $14. A few people purchased multiple lots seeking to rent them out. The lots set aside for government housing weren't exactly coveted real estate. Those with more money tended to push the prices out of the range of those without. There are many things that came up during this simulation, once again more than I expected, and we'll be referring to this for some time.

We continued reading Schiff's book for about 30 minutes.

Day 15

Starter: we wrote in our commonplace books, then discussed, our thoughts and opinions regarding the following quote:

"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms (of government) those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny." -Thomas Jefferson

This discussion involved the whether or not the Constitution is a living document, what causes revolutions, why most changes happen "...by slow operations", among other topics.

Commenced character profiling. Today students presented on Sam Walton, Bernie Madoff, and Karl Marx.

Read for 35 minutes.

Day 14, September 14

Discussed upcoming assignments as well as possible service projects as a class.

Read for 30 minutes from Schiff's class.

Watched the majority of the documentary Frontline: Inside the Meltdown.

Day 13

Discussed possible service projects as a class.

Discussed the economics and ethics behind the idea of "Share the Wealth" from Schiff's book.

Took a quiz on the terms and concepts covered thus far in class.

Assignment: talk to your parents/legal guardians about the different uses of their savings, or simply whatever is not consumed. Refer to the 5 options on page 20 of Schiff's book.

Day 12

Reviewed terms and concepts thus far in preparation for our vocab quiz on Monday. The list is as follows:

protectionism, Luddites, tariffs, paradigm shifts, cognitive dissonance, fiat money, money commodities and the characteristics, divisibility, double coincidence of wants, bonds, delayed consumption, interest, risk, investment, profit, capital, Laffer curve.

Read further in Schiff's book. A few students have already finished the entire book.

Day 11

Read and discussed the Risk-Return-Trade-off principle, which involved such terms as delayed consumption, interest, expected vs actual returns, bonds, and risk.

Why must GM pay more interest on their bonds than U.S. Treasury bonds?

Why does the U.S. government sell bonds? Why would they want to borrow from us? Can't they just print off the money?

Why does the graph comparing risk and expected return have a positive slope?

Is profit inherently immoral?

We continued our reading of Schiff's How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes. The following are some excerpts we discussed:

"We are told that we must go deeper into debt to fix our debt crisis, and that we must spend in order to prosper."

"Keynesianism permits governments to pretend that they have the power to raise living standards with the whir of a printing press."

"From gains in productivity all other economic benefits flow."

"But the economy didn't grow because they consumed more. They consumed more because the economy grew."

Housekeeping items:

-Monday we'll have a vocabulary quiz concerning concepts and terms that we've discussed thus far. The final list will be posted tomorrow after class.

-Character profile reports will be presented next Wednesday. Have things typed up ready to turn in, and be ready to present to the class.

Day 10

Started class off reading an article that applied to our discussion of money commodities.

Checked out our next book at the library: Peter Schiff's How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes. Students need to have read through chapter 2 by tomorrow, including the introduction.

Assigned various figures, past and present, for the students to research and report on. These oral reports will likely be due next week, towards the end of the week.

Day 9

After much discussion of what money is, different types of money commodities, and what an ideal money commodity might be like, we read a short paper on the history of fiat currencies. This paper briefly went over the experiences with fiat currencies in Rome, China, France, the Weimar Republic, Argentina, Mexico, the Thai baht, the Russian ruble, the colonial, the continental, and finally the state of the U.S. dollar.

Day 8

Today was spent in the Writing Center working on our rough draft. Mrs. Starr gave an excellent short lesson on Persuasive Writing, which I will briefly summarize:

When using MLA style formatting, the entire document is double spaced. The heading goes in the upper left corner, and the title is centered left to right. The title should be the exact same font and style as the rest of the paper, and the main words are capitalized.

If using the 5 paragraph format, the first paragraph consists of your "hook" which may be a

question, quote, etc., and then your thesis. The thesis is your claim followed by the reasoning. Mrs. Starr described it as the mother hen and her 3 chicks.

For the next three paragraphs, think of it as the mother hen accompanying one of the chicks, per paragraph.

To wrap things up, the 5th paragraph will be somewhat like the opener, only opposite. You will start with your thesis, then end with the "clincher".

The majority of the papers we write will be persuasive writing, particularly of the "Editorial" type.

Day 7

Today we briefly reviewed particular terms we've gone over so far: protectionism, double coincidence of wants, divisibility, models, paradigms, cognitive dissonance, and fiat money (not necessarily an exhaustive list).

We spent 35 minutes reading from Robinson Crusoe, then spent the rest of class working on the rough draft of our first paper which is due Friday. We'll be heading to the Writing Center tomorrow for editing purposes.

Day 6

The time came to determine a class presidency. We decided as a class not to tax the average student in order to compensate the nominated "public servants". We decided that those elected should be serving the class "out of the goodness of their hearts", and that anyone is free to donate to their benevolence.

In a democratic manner the presidency is such: Isaiah Slemons President, Bryanna Weaver Vice President, and Kate James Secretary. Congratulations to you three and thank you for serving our class.

During the remainder of class we read an excerpt by Murray Rothbard concerning the philosophy behind How Money Begins. We then discussed the various money commodities throughout history and the pros and cons of each, the pros being 1) scarcity (difficult to duplicate) 2) homogeneity 3) mobility 4) some sort of intrinsic value 5) durability 6) divisibility.

Of the various money commodities we had on the board, we decided gold best fit the above criteria. We then discussed the Why behind every government's decision to move to a fiat currency.

Day 5

Discussed the first paper due at the end of the week, September 3. Continued reading of Robinson Crusoe.

Paper topic: What is money? What is its function? What gives it value? Insight from Robinson Crusoe is STRONGLY encouraged.

Day 4

Chris Johnson filled in for me on Friday, August 27. According to him the class discussed models and paradigm shifts, and dealing with cognitive dissonance.

It was the first day I've ever missed in my career, and should be my last.

Day 3

The purpose of today was to read an example of persuasive writing. We took our example from Frederic Bastiat's A Petition.

To preface this paper we discussed the economic concept of Protectionism and used such examples as tariffs, licensing and regulations, the Luddites, George Stigler, and one's freedom of association.

We wrote in our commonplace books our personal thoughts as to how the U.S. government justifies protectionism and restricting one's freedom of association.

We continued our reading of Crusoe.

Day 2

We started the day off with some current events discussion: the housing market fell by 25% in July. Wow. Students were aware of the $8000 home buyers tax rebate also ending in July. Topics that came up included hyperinflation and why we shred money.

Today's topic was Leadership, specifically the principles espoused by Paradigm High: Virtue, Integrity, Ingenuity, Morality, Civility, Dignity, Optimism, Discipline, Honor, and Peace. We discussed the subjectivity and literal definitions, particularly of morality and virtue. Is one justified in imposing one's morals on another? What does it mean to sign the contract with Paradigm concerning their idea of morality?

We wrote in our commonplace books concerning our personal core principles, which form the basis behind why we make the choices we do.

We continued reading of Robinson Crusoe. The older style English and poor spelling can be difficult, but with perseverance one eventually discovers a rich story and the reason why Defoe became immortal with this book.

Day 1

1) Journal entry: "Who are you?"

Some of the questions considered and discussed:

-Does Who You Are determine the experiences you have and the choices you make? Or do the experiences you have and the choices you make determine Who You Are?

2) Short discussion on "What is money?":

-Is it simply a unit of measurement?

-What gives money its value?

-Is money inherently evil?

-Why does money have a bad connotation?

3) Began reading of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe

The History and Evolution of Money

I am very excited to begin this year and to explore the world of money with each of you. You can use this blog to keep up on our progress in terms of readings, writings, and discussions. You can also access the course syllabus and the reading schedule, each of which is likely to evolve throughout the year. Feel free to contact me at any time by calling the school or emailing me at bgee@paradigmhigh.org