At Ohio’s Oberlin College, registration in undergrad economics classes is up 25 percent this year, and the chair of the department says he’s never seen anything like it. Host Robert Smith finds a similar surge in the classrooms of American University and across the country. So is undergraduate economics getting sexier? In a word: yes.

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Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control, and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart – not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

Meltdown turns nerdy economists into hotties
By JAMES A. FUSSELL
The Kansas City Star
23 Oct 2008

In the past month Sarah Frazelle has grown unusually popular. People are calling, e-mailing, seeking her counsel. The reason for the sudden interest? Her master’s degree in economics. “I actually have friends who haven’t talked to me in years who are…read more…

No. 1, posted by Tim:

Demand curve slopes down
Because the more cake I eat,
The less cake I want.

No. 2, posted by Calum:

A friend and I, jailed;
We agreed to stay silent
(But I still confessed).

No. 3, posted by LiaStarLight:

No matter how hard
I shake my money maker,
It is not enough.

No. 4, posted by Nate C.:

Sales of ice cream seem
To correlate with crime rate?
Simply summer heat.

No. 5, posted by Sean:

Can we work it out
If there aren’t transaction costs?
But of Coase we can.

No. 6, posted by Sophie:

Haiku writers know
The opportunity cost
Of a syllable.

The winner was # 6.