Economics Word Search Puzzle!
OK this one is a bit nerdy, I admit it.
I’ve been working on various popular education tools to go along with Economics for Everyone (my economics “textbook” for unionists and other activists), trying to make the material as accessible and entertaining as possible — and making it as easy as possible for local activists to sponsor their own courses. This includes course outlines, student exercises, an on-line glossary, and other support materials — all downloadable for free from the e4e site (www.economicsforeveryone.ca).
This week I’ve even put up a word search puzzle, involving various figures from the history of economic thought, and featuring a politically-correct secret message that is visible only when you have correctly filled in all the answers.
Here’s the link to the puzzle, for any other nerds out there:
http://www.economicsforeveryone.ca/node/40
Anyone want to give it a try? Let me know if you spot any mistakes. (As you will see, I already encountered one issue resulting from the mis-spelling of a certain nerdy Italian economist’s first name!)
The Vancouver & District Labour Council is now 3 weeks into a weekly popular economics course based on e4e, which sounds like it’s going well. Other union-sponsored courses using the book include the Edmonton Labour Council, and groups in Scotland, Australia, and possibly New Zealand.
Two questions, Jim. First, do you cover Sydney J. Chapman’s theory of the hours of labour in Economics for Everyone? Second, do you cover Ira Steward’s “political economy of eight hours” and its extension and modification by George Gunton?
Both of these texts are, in my view, absolutely essential for “unionists and other activists”, because they cover the economics of the sale of labour power from the perspective, respectively, of neo-classical economics (before the triumph of the mathematical model builders) and the American labor movement in its earliest days. They provide a perspective independent from Marx’s but nevertheless confirming important aspects of Marx’s analysis of the extensive and intensive dimensions of working time.
Taken together, Chapman’s theory and Steward’s offer a profound critique of the so-called Keynesian neo-classical synthesis, which evaded and voided some of the most significant aspects of both Keynes and the Cambridge neo-classicals.
Your such a nerd Jim!
Oh and by the way just about any economist is somewhat of a nerd, I am glad I am a Labour Statistician/analyst/activist and hence not a hint of nerd. lol