Advise to Journalists

[Alex Tabarrok]

I will be giving a 15-20 minute talk to a bunch of journalists and proto-journalists ( most of them are editors of student university newspapers) about what economics has to offer journalism. I am interested in the suggestions of list members as to what the most important lessons economics has to teach. I have a number of thoughts myself, of course, including

comparative advantage (veneer of competition hides much cooperation)
public choice (qui bono? look for the organized exploiting the unorganized)
tradeoffs/all good are economic goods (e.g. safety)
amazing economic/business stories that are not told (I have in mind here "I Pencil"/"How Paris is Fed" stories about the great complexities of modern markets that people take for granted.

Other ideas? Thoughts? Specific examples?

Alex

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Alexander Tabarrok Department of Economics, MSN 1D3 George Mason University Fairfax, VA, 22030 Tel. 703-993-2314

Web Page: http://mason.gmu.edu/~atabarro/
and
Director of Research The Independent Institute 100 Swan Way Oakland, CA, 94621 Tel. 510-632-1366