Hi y’all! Here are five stories from this week that contained some neat applications of economic principles or are related to teaching:
Dolly Parton streams spiked after her death, up 2,109% in the US and 1,280% globally [The Associated Press]
Bill Gates wants to see a robot tax and ‘Human Reserved’ jobs to mitigate harms from AI [TechCrunch]
Australia’s social media ban for teens is going, uh, pretty badly [Business Insider | Archive]
Nearly 1 in 3 workers think they could run the company better than their bosses [Inc]
America’s next grocery shock is brewing [Axios]
A viral tweet accused readers of contradicting themselves if they believe more housing lowers prices, but don’t think more highway lanes will ease traffic. Turns out, it isn’t a contradiction. It comes down to one of economics’ more elegant (and underappreciated) ideas about how markets ration scarce goods. Read on to find out why one market has a fix baked in, and the other doesn’t.
Why More Houses Lower Prices but Extra Highway Lanes Don't Ease Traffic
Every semester, I start class with a conversation about the power of prices as incentives. I run through a few favorite examples, like how paying students and teachers can improve learning or how a small fee on plastic bags can cut usage dramatically. I want my students to start thinking like economists, so I pair each…
Are you an educator looking for ways to introduce this week’s newsletter into your classroom? Sign up for the Classroom Edition of Monday Morning Economist to get assessments and lesson plans delivered straight to your inbox every week.