Need News Article for Intermediate Macro Exam

Question

Hello:

Each semester, as part of my first exam in intermediate macroeconomics, I find an every-day news article to include and ask questions about related to either a basic labor/production market model or a review of intro materials. For reference/materials (feel free to steal) in the past I've used:

Fall 2018: "Economists See Fed Raising Rates in June, Then September" https://www.wsj.com/articles/economists-see-fed-raising-rates-in-june-then-september-1525969175
Spring 2018: "Danish Companies Seek to Hire, but Everyone’s Already Working" https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/28/business/economy/denmark-jobs-full-employment.html
Fall 2017: "What full employment really means" https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2017/01/29/what-full-employment-really-means
Spring 2017: "Skilled Workers Are Scarce in Tight Labor Market" https://www.wsj.com/articles/skilled-workers-are-scarce-in-tight-labor-market-1486047602
Fall 2016: "Video killed the radio star" http://review.chicagobooth.edu/economics/2016/article/video-killed-radio-star

You get the point.

Does anyone have anything similar that they may use? As much as I'd love to use detailed labor research this is meant more for students to quickly read and analyze basic questions like "Using Income/Substitution effects..." or "... why would the Fed decide to reinvest?"

Thank you in advance.

James

Answer 1

There was an AER Papers and Proceedings paper "Engaging Students in Quantitative Analysis with Short Case Examples from the Academic and Popular Press" by William Becker in 1998. He also published a book chapter "Engaging students in quantitative analysis with the academic and popular press". In Becker, W. M. & Watts, M. (Eds.), Teaching economics to undergraduates. Alternatives to chalk and talk (pp. 241–266). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
This year at the Conference on Teaching & Research in Economic Education, Hossein Kazemi, Stonehill College  presented on "How to Teach Macroeconomics and Monetary Policy. Using Technology, Current News, and Data". Already in 2013 Elizabeth Breitbach, now at Darla Moore School of Business, had presented at the AEA meeting on "Using Newspaper Articles and Documentary Films for Applications in Principles of Economics Courses”. It seems to me they have not (yet) published about their experience. Maybe contact them?

As to current news, how about these ones?
Bank of America to stop lending to companies operating private prisons, detention facilities, https://www.ajc.com/news/national/bank-america-stop-lending-companies-operating-private-prisons-detention-facilities/FIjv13bVCsWZZJMBBk1LfI/
Japan is taking extreme measures to defuse its demographic time bomb http://www.businessinsider.fr/us/japanese-government-measures-prevent-population-crisis-declining-babies-sex-2019-6
Not sure what quality and length you prefer but the topics seem thought provoking to me.