Community — Market Price

Troy and Abed are sitting at dinner in a fancy restaurant when the bill arrives at the end. Troy initially offers to pay for dinner because it was Abed’s birthday, but is shocked by the final total since so many things on the menu must have been listed as “market price.”

Restaurants often list menu items as “market price” because they may include item (like lobster or fish) that have a constantly fluctuating price. Instead of printing new menus to account for changing prices, restaurants will just list it at “market price.”

Thanks to Luke Starkey for the clip submission.

Trading Places — Orange Juice Trading

It’s time to short sell the orange juice commodities in Trading Places. Billy and Louis wait for the right price to sell and then hear from the Secretary of Agriculture that the market for oranges won’t be as bad as anticipated so then turn around to buy cheap.

John Stossel — Spontaneous Order

In this Stossel in the Classroom segment, John Stossel analyzes political promises and looks at how government intervention actually can harm business. A good portion of the video focuses on how the invisible hand dictates much of what we see occurring in our lives and how centrally planned economies like the Soviet Union break down.

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.

Saturday Night Live — Chris Rock on Minimum Wage

Chris Rock explains on Weekend Update how a minimum wage (a price floor) is above equilibrium wage. Firms may want to pay lower wages, but an effective price floor is one that is set above the equilibrium such that firms aren’t able to pay the lower wages. Thanks to Jodie Beggs for finding the Jeopardy reference that led me to finding this video.

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.

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