Ideas: Wanted: Economics Stories

The Day The Dollar Died

By Harry Chernoff (with due apologies to Don Maclean's American Pie)

A long, long time ago

I can still remember

How the dollar used to make me smile.

And I knew if I had my chance

I'd sell the currency of France

And, maybe, I'd be happy for awhile.

But all our spending made me shiver

With every T-bill we deliver.

Bad news on the doorstep;

I couldn't take one more step.

I can't remember if I cried

When I heard our politicians lied

But something touched me deep inside

The day the dollar died.

So bye-bye, dollar assets good-bye

Sold my Chevy at the levee

Cause my pension ran dry.

Them good old boys were drinking sake to try

Singing this will be the day that it died

This'll be the day that it died.

Did you write Whitehouse.gov

Or have you a Yen to fall in love

If Japan will tell you so?

Now, do you believe in oil and coal

Can China fill our import hole

And can we teach them how to grow real slow?

Well I know the country's fit and trim

cause the jobs are in the Pacific Rim.

We all knew savers lose

Man, I dug not having to choose.

We were living off the almighty buck

We got their goods and they were stuck

But I knew we were out of luck

The day the dollar died.

I started singing...

(Refrain)

Now for ten years we were sure we owned

All the stocks and bonds and mortgage loans

But that's not how it's gonna be.

When we've spent it all like kings and queens

In clothes we bought from The Philippines

The Asians pick the reserve currency.

Oh, and while the king was looking down,

Their central bankers came to town.

Our stocks and bonds were spurned

Those dollars were returned.

And while unions filled their books with Marx

The President said drill in parks

Our thermostats froze in the dark

The day the dollar died.

We were singing...

(Refrain)

Helter skelter in a summer swelter

The equity is gone from your leveraged sheter

Fannie and Freddie are falling fast.

Crash, they landed, but in a new class

Full faith and credit have long since passed

With Congress, in denial, out of gas.

Now the Wal-Mart there has cheap perfume

With imports filling every room.

We all got up to dance

Oh, but we never got the chance.

The consumers tried to take the field

The central banks refused to yield

Do you recall what was revealed

The day the dollar died?

We started singing...

(Refrain)

Oh, and there we were all in one place

Our credit rating in disgrace

With no time left to start again.

So come on: Al be nimble, Al be quick!

Al, cut rates by 50 ticks

Cause credit is the debtor's only friend.

Oh, and as I watched him on the stage

My hands were clenched in fists of rage

No congressman in hell

Could buy what he would sell.

And as the rates climbed high into the night

To stem the U.S. asset flight

The IMF said, Yes, that's right

The day the dollar died

They were singing...

(Refrain)

I met a girl who sang the blues

And I asked her if we still could choose

But she just smiled and turned away.

I went down to the Medicare store

Where we had spent our dollars years before

But the man there said those dollars wouldn't pay.

And in the streets the children screamed

The seniors cried and the workers steamed

But not a word was spoken

The commitments all were broken.

And the three men I admire most:

Faber, Rogers, and Bill Gross

Were at the forex trading post

The day the dollar died.

And they were singing...

(Refrain x2)

Jim Murphy - Teaching Economics & Classroom Experiments. База данных.

Games That Economists Play

"This website is a resource for instructors of economics who would like to use noncomputerized economic experiments (games) in their classrooms. The bulk of the website consists of an extensively annotated and hyperlinked compilation of more than 113 classroom games, most of which can be played within one class period. The purpose of the games is to help teach fundamental micro and macroeconomic concepts".

Resources for Economists (RFE) -- Teaching Resources

RFE is a great resource for economists, hosted by the American Economic Association. It contains about 1500 links divided into about 100 sections. The Teaching Resources section has a number of useful links. These are divided into sub-sections with brief descriptions for most links. It lists 1,548 resources in 97 sections and sub-sections available on the Internet of interest to academic and practicing economists, and those interested in economics. Almost all resources are also described.

Dirk Mateer

Aplia Econ Blog - teaching ideas from Aplia

Econstories.tv - well received rap

div.e.q. (diversifying economic quality: a wiki for instructors and departments)

Economics Memes - use "memes" to teach. Мемы уже использовались нами и раньше.

Ed Dolan's Econ Blog - current events for the classroom

Flat World Economics - rap songs for basic economics

Great Ideas for Teaching Economics - ideas from 250 instructors

Movie Scenes for Economics - scenes from movies that illustrate concepts

MusicForEcon - songs with economics themes

MV=PQ: A Resource for Economic Educators - ideas for teaching

NBC Learn - video clips from NBC News

The Teaching Economist (William A. McEachern) - ideas for instructors

TV for Economics - scenes from tv shows that illustrate concepts