The Oz-onomics Podcast

Podcast created by: Jared Jeziorowski and Khadejah Taylor

The aim of this podcast is to dissect economic and social disparities affecting minorities. Not just current disparities but also inequalities of the past and how those could impact people's intergenerational mobility for generations to come.

Podcast created by: Tyler Bacon and Jason Lin

Education inequity is a recurring issue in many countries across the world. When looking at South Africa, Finland, and the United States, there is a significant difference in the county’s allocation of resources to education which includes government funding, education requirements, and technology resources. The largest discrepancies exist between developing and developed nations where in developing countries there is a focus of resources on primary education and attacking the lower literacy levels in countries such as South Africa. While developed nations such as the US and Finland allocate far more resources to that secondary education. Finding ways to spread resources across the entirety of a nation is key to reducing income inequality through the improvement of education inequity in larger nations such as the US.

Podcast created by: Joshua Caban, Samantha Calinski

We discuss the returns to college majors, the reason why there are fewer women in stem, the economics of returns to education and majors, advice on college major choice,

Podcast created by: Zach Daigle and Sam Meltser

This podcast is about the events that took place leading up to, during, and after the 2008 Financial Crisis. This will include the lead up with the housing crisis, rising interest rates, and warning signs. It will also include during the crisis with bank failures, unemployment growth, GDP decline, and steps to try and mitigate the crisis. Finally, after the crisis we will get into the effects the crisis had on employment, the overall economy, GDP, and the acts/efforts passed afterwards.

Podcast by: Jared Jeziorowski and Khadejah Taylor

This podcast focuses on the causes and consequences of the Great Depression with the focus on monetary policy and international monetary policy.

Podcast created by: Samuel Kerner, Katherine Bablin, and Mathew Faulkner

The 1970s were characterized by periods of stagflation in which unemployment and inflation both rose. The stem of the issue came from political tensions in Arabia which led to a disruption in the supply of oil for the rest of the world. The resulting energy shocks disrupted the economies of many countries around the globe that imported oil from OPEC nations. It has been investigated time and time again the extent to which these energy shocks affected the economy. Specifically, economists want to know how much of the resulting stagflation was due directly to the energy shocks themselves, and how much was due to the government’s monetary policy in response to the shocks. This podcast explores both sides of the debate between the oil shocks and monetary policy.

A podcast that discusses opportunity costs and sunk costs.

Podcast by Taylor Moore and Caroline Flynn

[MUSIC]

Kate: Hey everyone. Welcome to Oz-onomics, a podcast created for and by students in introductory economics classes at SUNY Oswego.

GABRIELLA: In this series, we'll have discussions about various economic principles and how they apply to our day to day lives.

KATE: Are you ready?

GABRIELLA: Let's go.

[MUSIC]

Taylor’s Part of Podcast Hi everyone! This podcast features Caroline and Taylor (myself) as we will be discussing certain economic topics and looking at how they can apply to real life examples. I will take the first part and Caroline will talk about the second half of our topics. Today we are going to discuss opportunities costs and sunk costs! These are very important things to talk about and acknowledge in the world of economics. Now let's get into what these terms mean, The opportunity cost is the cost of next best alternative use. It is calculated in terms of the other goods. On the other hand, the sunk cost is the money spent on goods or services which cannot be recovered such as paying for rent. While these ideas sound like they may have some similarities, they are actually totally different concepts. First let’s take a look at opportunity cost and dive in a bit further to see how it works. In an example, A person can produce either 50 units of wheat or 100 units of rice by using its all resources in the given season. What is the opportunity cost of 1 unit of wheat? When we are considering this question, we want to determine what we gave up or lost with the production of another good. So in this case, what did we lose in terms of rice by producing 1 unit of wheat? Are we giving up wheat or rice when we use our resources to produce one unit of wheat? The answer is the alternative, which is rice. Therefore, in this case when we produce 1 unit of wheat, our opportunity cost is 2 units of rice. Now that we have a pretty good understanding of opportunity cost, let's look at an example of a sunk cost. Think about whether this statement is true or false: Advertisements are a sunk cost. Before we answer, remember that sunk costs are money that is spent on goods or services that cannot be recovered. This example is sort of tricky because when we think of it in terms of advertising it seems like it is not a sunk cost because of the potential revenue that ads could generate. However, advertisement expenses are considered sunk costs. It is money that once a company or individual spends, they are unable to recover. Before Caroline takes over, I am going to talk about short run average cost and the way that it appears on a graph. When we consider short run costs, we are talking about things that happen in the short term such as parts of the production process and what will occur over a short term output. I have another true or false statement that I want you to consider: The short run average cost is U shaped. (keep in mind this is talking in terms of how it appears on a graph.) The answer to this question is true. The short run average cost is U shaped on a graph because of the law of variable proportion. This law states that while the quantity of one variable factor is changed, the quantities of the other factors remain fixed. This is how we end up with a U like shape on the graph. Podcast Outline 5 Caroline’s Part of Podcast Thanks, Taylor and welcome, again everyone. As Taylor mentioned, we are discussing opportunity cost versus sunk cost today. Sunk cost is the cost that we have already incurred. This cost cannot be recouped as it is already attempted to expend. Whereas opportunity cost is something that a person should take into account. As it is the value of a fog on activity or an alternative when another activity or opportunity is taken. Opportunity cost should have to be measured while making decisions. Let’s look at a couple more scenarios: If we state that the gap between average cost curve and average variable cost curve increases as production increases, but why? We can argue that it is true because the law of variable proportion applies or we could say it is false because the average fixed cost decreases as the production increases. We could even go so far as to say that both are correct or neither are correct. Any thoughts? Well, in this example, the argument that the gap between average cost curve and average variable cost curve increases as production increases is incorrect because the average fixed cost decreases as the production increases. In this next example we state that the average variable cost is minimum when marginal cost is equal to it. Is this the case? Why? We can either say that yes, it is because the marginal cost curve cuts the average cost at its minimum point or yes, it is because the marginal cost is ratio of change in total variable cost and change in output. In this scenario, BOTH are correct. The average variable cost is minimum when marginal cost is equal to it because the marginal cost curve cuts the average cost at its minimum point and also because the marginal cost is ratio of change in total variable cost and change in output. So, to reiterate what we’ve touched on today, the opportunity cost is the cost of next best alternative use which is calculated in terms of other goods; while sunk cost is the money spent on goods which cannot be recovered, such as rent. Thank you for listening today. We hope you learned a little more about these topics today and their importance to economics. So long and stay safe.

[MUSIC]

MICHAEL: There you have a folks on another edition of Oz-onomics, where economics becomes easier for Oswego students to understand where you get your money that you pay for your tuition worth. If you feel like being ahead of the curve, grab a seat, grab your phone, shift your fingers left and right. And download Oz-onomics on the podcast app. See you later.

A discussion of some of the economic effects of immigration.

Podcast by Shanette Lee

[MUSIC]

Kate: Hey everyone. Welcome to Oz-onomics, a podcast created for and by students in introductory economics classes at SUNY Oswego.

GABRIELLA: In this series, we'll have discussions about various economic principles and how they apply to our day to day lives.

KATE: Are you ready?

GABRIELLA: Let's go.

[MUSIC]

Hi listeners, This is Shanette Lee once again with another podcast. Today I will be talking about the economic effects of immigration. So just so happens that unauthorized immigrants created the demand for goods and services while an estimated 50 to 75% pay taxes. So because of cheaper labor, meaning they get paid less than what let's say you are or me will get paid. But while doing the same job at times. They contribute to lower prices in industries where they work, like restaurants, construction and agriculture. You actually see this happen very prominently at jobs, but it happens more when the immigrant is involved because there might be a language barrier. So you do see this, it just so happens that maybe you'll catch onto it. If you could communicate better. The relationship has been observed between immigration and the growth. Obviously it depends on many different variables like the skill composition. They are very hard working because in other countries they have no choice but to work super hard. We're a bit more spoiled here in America that most of us know and like to admit .The rate of assimilation, the distribution labor market consequences, the size of the immigration surplus, the potential human capital extremities and the longterm fiscal impact increasing deportation rates and tightening border controls, weakness like low skilled labor markets, increasing unemployment and native low skilled workers legislation instead decreases the employment rate of low skilled natives and increases income per native who would have thought benefits claim. Now you also see a lot of people like to complain about having immigrants in our country, but the benefits claim include like fiscal advantages, increase growth, domestic product per head already supplied a labor . Like I mentioned earlier, they've worked very hard. Improvements to the age structure, fears that large scale immigration might damage the interest of unskilled native workers are discounted. Immigration also has a net positive effect on combined federal, state and low budget, but not all tax payers benefit equally. In regions with large populations of the less educated, um, like low-income immigrants, let's say native born residents bear significant net cause due to immigrants use of public services, especially education. So this is where a lot of people agree with certain things, that are going on in the government because they just feel like ,since we live in America, there fore out people come first . I personally think everybody should be treated the same ...fairly. Some people have this vendetta against immigrants and they like to say l you know, we have to take care of our people first, which I could kinda sorta understand. But if we all are getting help and there is space to help immigrant, then I think we should do that. But people have a problem that the people of our country are getting denied certain things. But then again, they argue immigrants are coming from another country without earning it and you know, benefiting from the benefits we have. It also comes to the fact that immigration leads to more innovation, a better educated workforce, greater occupational specialization, better matching skills with jobs and higher overall economic productivity, you know, they come skilled, they come ready to work hard. They're not lazy like us. Sometimes they're plier than us, which is pleasant as well. Like Oh for customer service reasons. Immigration also has a net positive effect on, as I mentioned earlier, federal, state and local budgets. It's a good thing. And then it's just things that people don't like to face. Like the fact that let's say I'm working in a factory and then theres an immigrant working at the factory, they'll pay me my high rate , you know and they'll pay that person less because they feel as though that's what the person deserves or the person cant speak up for themselves. So it's kinda hard to pick a side, but they definitely have a great impact on our economy. In the terms of getting stuff done, like when they worked in the factory, when we have a lot of immigrants that happened to be mechanic, very hands on jobs is where we see a lot of immigrants. They make a great deal of a difference. In 2019, the labor force participation rate of foreign born adults was 65.7% higher than the 62.3% rate for the native born. And according to the United States Bureau of labor statistics, 27.2 million foreign born adults, 63.4% of the foreign born adults were employed that year compared to the 59.8% of the native born adults. it's clear to see immigrants hold jobs that are important to our economy. It's our communities, immigrant workers without a college degree. So like, it's helping them get what they have to do done is helping us progress with our economy. And then, you know, we're building things. personally live in New York. We need big buildings. We need, we need them. It's, they're, they're more of a positive impact than there are negative. so I hope I was able to bring clarity or teach you something that you didn't know about the situation. Thank you so much and have a great evening.

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MICHAEL: There you have a folks on another edition of Oz-onomics, where economics becomes easier for Oswego students to understand where you get your money that you pay for your tuition worth. If you feel like being ahead of the curve, grab a seat, grab your phone, shift your fingers left and right. And download Oz-onomics on the podcast app. See you later.

• https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/immigrants-contribute-greatly-to-us-economy-despite-administrations

Monopolies are corporations who dominate over a particular industry and are the primary supplier of a particular commodity. When they are left without government intervention, the price increases above the competitive equilibrium price which is detrimental to consumers. Anti-trust laws were put into place in order to regulate companies with too much influence over the market. This is beneficial to consumers who rely on competition to lower prices and make goods more affordable for the public. The basis of these laws is the Sherman Act, Federal Trade Commission Act, and the Clayton Act which were all established within a 30-year period approximately a century ago. They are still in effect today with slight modifications being made over time as the government adapted to changing societal conditions. Regulations imposed on corporations raise the cost of their products because of the resources being allocated to meet various government standards. These regulations are intended to serve the well-being of the public. Although this has a direct impact on consumers, government intervention has proven effective in mitigating the abuse of power by companies with a lot of influence on commerce.

Podcast by Malcolm Wettering

[MUSIC]

Kate: Hey everyone. Welcome to Oz-onomics, a podcast created for and by students in introductory economics classes at SUNY Oswego.

GABRIELLA: In this series, we'll have discussions about various economic principles and how they apply to our day to day lives.

KATE: Are you ready?

GABRIELLA: Let's go.

[MUSIC]

My name is Malcolm Wettering and I am going to discuss anti-trust laws, monopolies, their connection to one another, and the role of the government in maintaining a balance in the market. A monopoly is an enterprise which possesses exclusive control over the supply of a commodity. This means that a company has the ability to pigeonhole consumers into purchasing a good or service above the competitive equilibrium price because there are no competitors to force them to lower the cost. An anti-trust law is a form of federal and state legislature which promotes fair competition for the benefits of consumers by regulating conduct. This was first developed in the late 1800’s to combat monopolies such as the steel, oil, and banking industries who became prosperous through policies such as lowered working conditions for employees. The role of the government in establishing fair trade began with the Sherman Act in 1890 which was meant to preserve free trade and unfettered competition. This was followed by the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Clayton Act in 1914. These became the core of anti-trust laws which are still in effect today. The penalties from violating the terms of the Sherman Act can be tough on both corporations and individuals, with monetary fines of 10 million and 350,000, respectively. As well as up to 3 years in prison if convicted but these penalties vary for each case. Any violations of the Sherman Act also violate the Federal Trade Commission Act. The Clayton Act is specifically designed to prohibit mergers that could lower competition and interlocking directorates. This occurs when members of a corporate board of directors serve on multiple boards of corporations. It is practical because this allows people in positions of power to make decisions for competing companies, which would typically be used to increase profits in some form. There is interdependence between monopolies and anti-trust laws because one cannot exist without the other. Laws were put into place that would establish a balance between the producer and consumer and promote a healthy relationship. Some monopolies get their power through vertical integration, which is when they control the entire chain of supply, from the production aspect to the retail as well. This is detrimental to the businesses of other competitors who do not have control of the supply chain and lose a portion of their profits by having to go through the supply chain. Some other characteristics of monopolies are price fixing, a decline in product quality, and loss of innovation. Innovation is imperative to progression and advances over time, and this is lost when there is no competition to push producers to come up with new ideas to grab the attention of consumers. A decline in product quality most likely occurs because if consumers have no alternative to purchase, they are going to unwillingly settle for what is provided. Regulations impact the market by increasing consumer prices since funds need to be designated to meeting certain standards in various aspects of the company providing the good. This could impact consumers who are poor because energy and food is what their limited budgets prioritize, and this is also one of the most heavily regulated aspects of the market. Consumers are also influenced by regulations through the quality of the goods they are going to purchase, the information they receive about a product, and confidence in the product supply. Some corporations today that resemble monopolies and concentrated industries include Waste Management, Google, and Monsanto. There are legal discrepancies which still allow these companies to continue producing products at a higher price due to a lack of alternatives. For example, utility monopolies are allowed to exist because their prices are regulated by a government body. Competition in these areas would lead to confusion and highly undesirable social outcomes. Such as license issuance for various groups where quality control is of upmost importance. Monsanto is a prime example of a company pushing a lack of alternatives because they have taken over the seed industry. Their products use all GMO seed choices which is leading to a loss of renewable agriculture across the country. Google is a concentrated industry which remains a top used search engine, with about 90% of online searches resulting from their website. They dominate over their competitors and make it difficult for a company to start up in their market. When left unchecked, it is natural for corporations to continuously attempt to maximize their profit. However, it is often at the expense of consumers. A deadweight loss is also created by monopolistic competition, which is the allocative inefficiency of utility that is lost. A possible loophole that companies would try to exploit include purchasing a foreign company which holds less than 70 million in United States assets but may be worth far more. This occurred when Google purchased Waze, a competitor for mapping software, for over 1 billion dollars. Another example would be carried interest, which allows corporations to pay lower taxes on their income. Regulation of companies is a necessary requirement to ensure a mutualistic relationship between producers and consumers. Government intervention has proven over the past century to be beneficial compared to a laissez-faire approach, which would leave the public paying for overpriced goods and services. Anti-trust laws have been in place for just over 100 years, and the same principles are in place today. This is because government control of the market is an ideal way for a third party aside from producers and consumers to be regulated with oversight.

[MUSIC]

MICHAEL: There you have a folks on another edition of Oz-onomics, where economics becomes easier for Oswego students to understand where you get your money that you pay for your tuition worth. If you feel like being ahead of the curve, grab a seat, grab your phone, shift your fingers left and right. And download Oz-onomics on the podcast app. See you later.

The following describes the purchase of Waze by Google https://www.gpsworld.com/googles-1-1-billion-purchase-of-waze-under-ftc-scrutiny/ The following describes the seed control strategies of Monsanto https://www.planetnatural.com/seed-control/ The following shows that google is responsible for 90% of online searches https://internethealthreport.org/2018/90-of-the-world-uses-google-search/ The following is where I received information regarding anti-trust laws https://www.justice.gov/atr/antitrust-laws-and-you This is where I got the information for fines and jailtime involving violations of the Sherman Act https://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/penalties-for-violating-antitrust-laws.html

In this podcast we discuss the nature of perfectly competitive market structures and monopolistic market structures. We talk about how an imaginary product/industry would behave in each market structure under their different conditions and with their different attributes.

Podcast by: Kate Soanes and Gabriella Schaff

Kate: Hey everyone. Welcome to Oz-onomics, a podcast created for and by students in introductory economics classes at SUNY Oswego.

GABRIELLA: In this series, we'll have discussions about various economic principles and how they apply to our day to day lives.

KATE: Are you ready?

GABRIELLA: Let's go.

[MUSIC]

[MUSIC]

MICHAEL: There you have a folks on another edition of Oz-onomics, where economics becomes easier for Oswego students to understand where you get your money that you pay for your tuition worth. If you feel like being ahead of the curve, grab a seat, grab your phone, shift your fingers left and right. And download Oz-onomics on the podcast app. See you later.