The Boy Toy auction gets a little heated as the ladies of One Tree Hill are down to the final boy, Nathan. The auction values start to get high, but they are intent on not letting the other ladies get Nathan. They work together to get the bid up to a point where no one else can participate.
Rick Steves — Dutch Flower Auction
Watch a market in action during the Aalsmeer, Netherlands flower auction.
Thailand’s Mae Klong Train Market
The local train comes through the market a few times each day, but that doesn’t stop local shops from selling their produce. The resources are used so efficiently in this village that the train runs right through the middle of the market and then the market re-establishes itself after the train passes.
Le Trefle — Emma
Paper products have a lot of substitutes with new tablets on the markets, but those tablets will never be able to replace some paper necessities.
Forrest Gump — Only Boat Left
Forrest easily enters the shrimp market by buying a boat. There are multiple buyers and sellers, and no one shrimping boat controls the price of shrimp. Therefore the shrimp market is an example of perfect competition. Once the hurricane hits it forces all the other boats to exit the market. Turning the market into a monopoly. Forrest is the sole supplier of the product, controlling the entire market, turning it into a monopoly.
Thanks for the clip and summary Keagan Rallis
John Stossel — Price Gouging
Is price gouging evil or is it the sensible economic decision when shortages arise? In this series, John Stossel explores price gouging around natural disasters. This topic is really good for discussing the tradeoff between equity and efficiency.
Jingle All The Way: Elasticity of TurboMan
Howard (Arnold Schwarzenegger) tries to get a coveted TurboMan action figure doll the day before Christmas. It’s only the hottest selling toy of the season, so everyone is in a rush to grab this item. Because prices aren’t (initially) adjusting in their usual way, a shortage occurs across the entire city.
A limited shipment of Turbo Man action figures does arrive at one store, which decides to allocate the doll through a lottery system. Whenever there are shortages in markets, there may be a misallocation of consumption, particularly when items are distributed randomly rather than to the consumers with the highest willingness to pay. Even the though the price of the doll increases by 100%, there doesn’t appear to be any change in the quantity that people want to purchase. This would imply that the demand for TurboMan action figures is very inelastic.
Late Show: Uber CEO Discusses Surge Pricing
This is just a small clip of Stephen Colbert’s interview with Uber CEO, Travis Kalanick. This portion discusses surge pricing and how drivers respond to increases in demand. This clip also opens the door for discussions on efficiency vs equity.
Catch Me If You Can: Supply Curve
Here’s a clip from Catch Me If You Can illustrating a few great supply curve principles, including reservation wage. This is the full scene, but you can clip it at 1:19 to show just the relevant parts.