Elliot (Brendan Fraser) strikes a deal with the Devil (Elizabeth Hurley) in Bedazzled in order to gain the affection of a coworker. In this short clip, Elliot needs proof of the Devil’s power, so he asks for a Big Mac and a large coke. The two proceed to McDonalds, but Elliot ends up having to pay for it himself because there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
You don’t like pickles, but your friend does? That works out well for these two as Buckwheat buys Porky’s pickle from him for 2 cents. What a quick example for a mutually beneficial transactions.
The Informant tells the story of price fixing in the lysine business by American and Japanese businesses. Matt Damon plays the undercover witness who uncovers the scheme for the US government. This is a great movie to theme the cartel/collusion discussion for class.
An example of a negative externality is displayed in the movie Anchorman when Paul Rudd’s character, Brian Fantana, sprays his so-called desirable perfume, Sex Panther, which is claimed to contain real bits of panther and is also illegal in nine countries. He states, “60% of the time, it works everytime”. After he applies this stinky spray, he goes to talk to Veronica Corningstone. As soon as he walks into the busy room, everyone leaves and coughs in disgust from the scent of this special cologne.
Thanks for the clip Allie Ziolkowski!
I use this clip to introduce the concept of monopolistic competition in a market place and how demand shifts when close substitutes enter a market.
It’s sometimes hard to get across the idea of public services as being a type of public good, but “freedom” may be a simple enough concept for students. This clip from Team America takes a country-spin on why it’s important to pay for public services like freedom. It also can be used to teach the concept of opportunity cost since freedom for people today cost a lot of lives in the past.
Jason Bourne, played by Matt Damon, asks a cash-strapped young woman (Franka Potente) for a lift while Conklin (Chris Cooper) musters all of his forces to find him. Both parties have something that the other one needs, so a mutually beneficial trade occurs. This clip really highlights the concept of double coincidence of wants.
The efficient market hypothesis states that any available information about a market is already captured in the market price. Matthew McConaughey, in The Wolf of Wall Street, notes that the first rule of the market is that no one knows what is going to happen, especially stock brokers.
From YouTube:
Cold War cartoon defending the profit motive against anti-capitalist critics. The second of seven smart-looking animated shorts in the “fun and facts about American business” series. Its subject is “the profit motive,” and it stars “Freddie Fudsie,” a lazy soap maker who just wants to go fishing. He invents bar soap, makes some money, and is about to retire in peace and quiet when a sexy lady (the Profit Motive) walks by and Freddie — who suddenly needs more money to win her affection — never sees a fishing hole again. But that’s okay, because “the profit motive has been the driving force behind the growth of American industry” and “will make a better life for the children of tomorrow.”
Billy, played by Vince Vaughn, and Nick, played by Owen Wilson, are salesmen whose lost their jobs because of increased computerization. The two don’t want to be left behind so they apply (and are accepted) to an internship at Google even though they are much older than their cohort.