Highest Rated Cable TV Show Ever - Not in NYC or LA

The highest rated cable TV show ever was the Monday Night Football game with the Green Bay Packers barely losing to the Minnesota Vikings in Minnesota. A midwest event with an old Mississippi quarterback named Brett Favre playing in his first game against the Packers.

Before the game, many people asked me which team I was rooting for. I wanted the Packers to win, but I wanted Favre to play well. Favre played very well and the Packers should have won the game. I didn't quite get what I wanted.

Pfuffnick's Nobel Prize in Economics Triumph Hailed by Many

The Nobel Prize in Economics is one of the most prostegious annual awards in the world. The list of past recipients is a who's who of giants in the field of economics. Recently, Quintus Pfuffnick was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for 2009. The following is the Associated Press account of this important event.

From the Associated Press (with some light editing):

Pfuffnick's Nobel Economics Prize triumph hailed by many

LONDON — The surprise choice of first-year graduate student Quintus Pfuffnick for the Nobel Prize in Economics drew praise from much of the world Friday even as many pointed out the youthful economist has not yet published anything in scholarly journals.

The new PhD candidate was hailed for his willingness to tackle difficult problems, his commitment to improving the economic system, and his goal of bringing efficiency and equality into harmony.

Professor Paul Krugman of Princeton, who won the prize in 2008, said Pfuffnick's award shows great things are expected from him in the coming years.

"In a way, it's an award coming near the beginning of the first year in grad school of a relatively young economist that anticipates an even greater contribution towards making our economy a better place for all," he said. "It is an award that speaks to the promise of Mr Pfuffnick's message of hope."

He said the prize is a "wonderful recognition of Pfuffnick's essay in his grad school application."





OK, you got me! This story is a spoof of President Obama's Nobel Peace Price that I found on the blog of Greg Mankiw, a Harvard University economist.

Using Animated Movies to Learn About Mathematics

I recently discovered a cool web tool that allows you to create animation movies from text. It is called xtranormal. They offer a free plan. I plan to create some movies that pertain to math, economics, sports, etc.

Here is an example that someone created using xtranormal to talk about the limits concept from calculus.

Teenage Employment and Minimum Wage Increases

The unemployment rate has recently reached 9.8% and threatens to break through the double digit threshold. Meanwhile, a few subsets of the population have been especially hard hit during these difficult economic times. Interestingly, certain economic policies have led to a higher unemployment rate for the least skilled population subsets.

Teenagers tend to be low skilled when it comes to labor markets. They just haven't had the time to accumulate much labor market skills. Congress increased the minimum wage to $7.25 per hour in July. Furthermore, Congress has increased the minimum wage by more than 40% since July 2007. Basic economic analysis tells us that increases in the minimum wage lead to a decrease in the quantity of labor demanded by employers and, subsequently, a reduction in employment by low skilled teenage workers.

This is precisely what has occurred to teenage workers. According to a recent Wall Street Journal report, 330,000 teenage jobs have vanished in the past two months and nearly 700,000 teenage jobs have been eliminated since Congress began increasing the minimum wage in July 2007. The September teen unemployment rate hit 25.9%, the highest rate since World War II. Even worse, the unemployment rate of black male teens rose to an incredible 50.4%.

Employment is a productivity and skills issue. Government cannot mandate a productivity and skills increase when it mandates a minimum wage increase. If it could, why stop at $7.25 per hour? Why not have Congress increase the minimum wage to $100 per hour? Magic!