Why we study supply and demand: Meet Lindsey Kuzma

Why we study supply and demand: Meet Lindsey Kuzma

Lindsey Kuzma is a market analyst specializing in the market for base oil, which I think is a by-product of oil refineries. Koch knew what they were doing when they hired her. I didn't know her as an undergrad but I have seen her performance and wish she had taken my classes! She spends most all of her time in Excel, studying base oil prices, with a particular emphasis on long-term fundamentals. Each week, she participates in a supply and demand meeting where they discuss the supply and demand of base oil. She is expected to understand the big picture of the base oil market, where the market is heading, and must communicate this understanding to others clearly—that is her job! So when teaching supply and demand, and you feel the need to motivate its importance, simply introduce the students to Lindsey Kuzma!

Great ammunition for public choice economists

Ganesh said that he gave the deity whatever money he could spare, which was sometimes as little as one rupee—roughly two cents.  Everything in the temple, Ganesh said, came from devotees like him, and he added, “So of course it belongs to God!”.

Wouldn’t it be a good thing, I asked if the deity’s wealth were used to help people?  By that logic, Ganesh said, valuable objects should also be removed from churches and mosques.  Moreover, he insisted, the money would not “reach the right hands.” 

…

“If the government takes hold of the temple’s wealth, they will loot it,” Ganesh concluded.

—Halpern, Jake.  April 30, 2012.  “The Secret of the Temple.”  The New Yorker.