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Basic information
The Department of Economics and the Government Department are jointly organizing a trip to Björklunden. A bus will be leaving on Friday, November 9th, at 6pm from the Lawe Street turnaround (behind the Library). The bus will bring you back to campus on Sunday, November 11th, around 4pm. Björklunden is the beautiful ``northern campus'' of Lawrence University right on the shores of Lake Michigan (find out more here). Our theme for the trip will be Free Trade: we will look at the economics and politics of free trade and globalization. This issue has been in the news a lot lately. Alan Blinder, a well-known economist, has controversially sounded seemingly anti - free trade alarms. The question has often come up in the presidential candidates' debates. Our goal will be to learn about the arguments and facts that come up in this debate. We will have a session Saturday morning, a session Saturday afternoon, and a session Sunday morning. This will still leave lots of time in our schedule to socialize, take walks in the beautiful surrounding forest (it's called Björklunden for a reason!), perhaps build a campfire.
Signing up
To sign up please send an email to Adam Galambos. As a background for our discussions, you are asked to study some material on free trade or globalization. There are a few books on reserve in the Library; you can choose a reading you like from those. Other possible readings are linked below. You are also welcome to find your own material you find inetersting - this can be a radio program, a TV program, a movie, etc. When you sign up for the trip, please mention in your email what material you chose. Your reading should be about 30-40 pages or more; if you listen to or watch a program, that should also be somewhat in-depth, at least 30 minutes. If you have no preference at all regarding the material, just send an email and ask for an ``assigned'' reading. You will not be asked to give a formal presentation on the reading, but you will be counted on to contribute to our discussions based on your reading.