RS 9: Why the Price of Coke Didn't Change for 70 Years

This blog post is my analysis on the economic podcast “Episode 416: Why the Price of Coke Didn’t Change for 70 Years.” This podcast appeared on the planet money website on November 13, 2012. The podcast summarizes how The Coca Cola Company used the strategy of having a fixed cost for 70 years. The price of coke was only 5 cents for 70 whole years. The way the company did this was advertising that their product was only 5 cents.. This made it that the retailers were unable to charge a higher price than what was being told. The contract of the fixed cost be Coca Cola was unable to change because so. People may have thought at first that the companies plan to charge at a fixed rate would be dumb, but I think their smart business strategy to advertise made it irrelevant. Another way they maintained the fixed cost was because of their vending machines. Coca Cola company manufactured their own vending machines where the machine would only take one coin. That coin was a nickel. After later trying to have Eisenhower issue a 7.5 coin value Coke was turned down. 

The Coca Cola Company is a very smart Company and is why they have been around for so long. It would have been great only paying a nickel for a soda, but thats not the world we live in today. With tons of competition the price values rise and drop. A soda today ranges from about $1.50 to $2.00. Coke is still a major power in the beverage distribution and their business strategy has to do with that.

RS 8: Manufacturing the Song of the Summer

This blog post is my analysis on the economic podcast “Manufacturing the Song of the Summer” by Planet Money. This podcast appeared on the Planet Money website on July 8, 2011. This podcast is an overview of how a hit song is made and costs. I figured it was expensive to make a song, but did not realize the exact amounts. According to the podcast to make a hit song costs over a million dollars. This cost is before the song is even a hit! The risk for this can be good or bad. If the song is good it will be played by everyone, but if not you pay all this money to make a crap song. If you think about the amounts of money the top artists make this is not that much to them. Most do not even write their own songs and is part of the costs to make the song. 

One thing I disagree with the whole music industry is how they cannot pay 
to put their songs on the radio. This is called payola. Companies can pay to put advertisements on the radio, but artists cannot for their music. This does not make much sense to me at all. I think they should be able to without having a problem. They get around this by treating these people good. They take them out to nice places and give them nice gifts. This helps them remember who was nice to them and throw their song on the air for a few spins. 

RS 7: The Economics of the Music Industry

This blog post is my analysis on the economic podcasts Episode 410: Why K-Pop Is Taking Over The World and “Katy Perry’s Perfect Year” by Planet Money. These podcast appeared on the Planet Money website on January 20, 2012. The podcasts talked about the music industry and the money that is involved with it. Many people do not realize how big the music industry is and the importance it has on our economy. The first podcast talks about how other countries have been trying to master the music industry like the United States. America has the biggest music industry and most popular artists. Recently China has finally found what they have been waiting for years in a artist named Psy. Psy recently put out a hit song in China and has spread all across the world even topping charts in the US. 

The music industry is one thing that the United States can say they are the best in. Though the industry is not doing as well as it use to, it is still the best in the world. The music industry helps our economy out and you would not even think too much of it. A lot of money goes into the industry, but who is it actually all going to? There are many people and groups that help to make up the product that they are giving us to listen to and they all want a cut from it. Though Katy Perry was the top on the charts last year, her record label may not have made as much as you think. Money is chipped away at the total constantly to pay those involved and their cuts are expensive. You may be hearing about all these big numbers they make, but they are not taking that all home when all is said and done. People may believe that it's not the fairest thing, but to make the best music you have to spend money to do so. They should jus be happy they are taking home money at all. Lastly, with the hit song "Gangnam Style" putting China's music industry on the map, the US should be aware. This is one of the last things they have over all other countries and a big help to our economy. China has been wanting to take over and step into the spotlight in music and they may now have a chance.

RS 6: An Economist Gets Stoned

This blog post is my analysis on the economic podcast “An Economist Gets Stoned,” by Planet Money. This podcast appeared on the Planet Money website on January 27, 2010. During this podcast the topic of the legalization of marijuana is discussed on how  the prices will be effected. Lately more states have implemented the law of issuing legal marijuana. The most recent is here in Connecticut. The question being asked is will the prices of "black market" marijuana increase or decrease due to the legalization of it. People want marijuana to be legal to increase government revenues. People believe that it can bring in as much as one billion dollars. Harvard Economist Jeffrey Miron on the other hand does not believe it will. 

In my opinion I believe marijuana should be legalized. If it has the potential to make us all this money why not give it a try and help the economy out. You have all these other drugs like alcohol legal and the consequences are just as bad. They should have an age limit on purchasing marijuana like alcohol and cigarettes though. Like any other drug or substance people know the effects of taking it and make their own choices. The government is not telling people to smoke weed, but offering it to people who would like to. You do not hear as many people overdosing on marijuana as you do as alcohol either. Even though marijuana is illegal now it is still present all over. One reason is the reason of law enforcement that limit what is coming into our country. As stated in the podcast also, these officers are not punished for drugs coming in past them. They are not effected in any way being they are not competition for these dealers. If they do not want to legalize it that bad than make more of effort to keep it out. On the other hand if it is legalized, then the law enforcement that are being paid for these purposes will not have  to be hired. The government will save money here and make money selling it. If I had the option i would give it a trial run and see how it goes. If it does not work as planned go back to what has been working and stop talking about it. 

RS 5: Ken Robinson "Schools Kill Creativity"

This blog post is my analysis on the video “Schools kill creativity" by Ken Robinson. Ken Robinson is an expert in creativity and an entertaining speaker to listen to. Robinson believes that schools are ruining kids ability to be creative. I thought that the topic presented was very unique and interesting. He put things in perspective that may not be able to be said in words. Robinson makes very good points on his point of view, but I do not agree completely with him.

In my opinion I believe that he is right in the way that teachers may steer students into studying major topics such as math and science, but it is the persons decision to follow through with it. People make their decision by the type of world we live in today. Most decisions are made for the future. People select and do what is better for them in the long term. You can make a living in business or medical, but not everyone can make good money dancing or making music. It is not necessarily teachers taking away creativity, but you giving it up for something else. People make decisions for themselves. If you truly want to do something you would do it and not just give it up. 

RS 4: Freakonomics Podcast: "Fear thy Nature"

This blog post is my reaction on the podcast “Fear Thy Nature: A New Freakonomics Radio Podcast.” This podcast appeared on the website on September 14, 2012. The podcast is about the actions people go about when they are given masks to wear in a surroundings they do not know well. Students are taken into a theatre and do many different things. When somebody is wearing a mask or "behind the curtain" they do things they normally are not comfortable or wouldn't do. They get a feeling that they are safer or comfort that they can do out of the ordinary things.For example, you do not see bank robbers running in to banks to show their faces. They wear masks because they get a feeling that they will not be caught. The same things apply to people online. Kids post things on websites or say things to other people they wouldn't say in front of their faces. Xbox live is a prime example of little kids talking crap over a mic because they know people will never see them.
 

This podcast can apply to some of the eight guideposts of economics. One that it can apply to is the test of a theory is its ability to predict. The theatre tested a theory that if you place a mask on someone, the actions they display might be different then a room of people with out masks on. The theory was proven correct by people doing things they normally would not. The experiment also can apply to the guidepost of economic actions often generate secondary effects in addition to their immediate effects. When given the mask, a persons characteristics changed from what they were previous. The mask is what is causing it. 

RS 3 Economic Meme

Information is good, but costly: The Jets use information from the preseason to finally learn how to find the end zone in the regular season. 

RS 2 Marijuana And The European Dream

This blog post is my analysis on the podcast Episode 395: Maastricht, Marijuana And The European Dream by Planet Money. This podcast audio was available on August 17, 2012. In Maastricht it is legal for the sales of Marijuana. This is a great reason why many tourist go here and cross borders to do so. Marijuana is sold in coffee shops and the owners were doing very well. Recently the mayor decided to ban the sale of marijuana to tourists and only local citizens are able to buy it. This then required all tourists to show ID upon entering coffee shops. Eventually they required any citizen who wanted to purchase marijuana to be registered. This steered even more customers away knowing that it would show they were registered for buying drugs.

One economic guidepost which this situation can be an example of is an economic action often generates a secondary effect in addition to their immediate effects. After the mayor decided to put a ban on marijuana to tourists, the effect on sales dropped drastically. Majority of the people purchasing were tourists and now the coffee shop owners are the ones it hurts the most. They opened up their shops while there was no ban in effect, and then were blindsided with a ban  to kill their business. It also hurts the mayor too with him knowing or not. Maastricht received a big chunk of their economic income from these tourist coming in mainly for the sole purpose of being able to purchase marijuana and now that was taken away from them. 

RS 1 HOW TO BE A GENIUS

This blog post is my analysis on the article “How to Be a Genius” by David Dobbs. This article appeared in the September 2006 edition of the New Scientist. People are not made a genius, but it is up to them to become one. Some humans may be born with more talents physically or mentally, but much effort has to be put in to maintain it. Even as a child author David Hobbs could have been set out for greatness says his mother. Hobbs realized later in life that his early gift would soon run out. Only when he put in more work and effort than usual he would see that he was getting somewhere. What is trying to be said is that you have to put work in to succeed. The more work and effort you apply to your work the better or smarter you will be at it. Examples of greats that’s put in effort to become a genius at what they do are Einstein, Hawking, Newton, and even athletically speaking Michael Jordan, Lebron James, Tiger Woods, and Pete Sampras. These people all have in common that they worked extra hours to be a genius at what they do.

Stephen Hawking’s take on IQ is that it has no relations to someone’s ability to be a genius. Hawking was an average student until his mid twenties when his work ethic became more serious. Hawking says, “People who boast about their IQ are losers.” I believe in this statement because anybody can be good at taking a test, but their ability to apply it to something meaningful is a lot tougher. Even as Dobbs says in the article, his co-workers too have talent. It is their work ethic that will set them apart from someone else.

I truly found this article something that I believe in. I can relate to this in ways of when it comes to school. The more I study or put into a class, the better I usually do or understand that material. It can be motivational to some to put more work in and see better results.