Ec 10 Review

The Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper, reviews Ec 10. An excerpt:

For many Harvard freshmen, Ec10 (aka, Social Analysis 10, “Principles of Economics,”) is as much a part of the college experience as sneaking food out of Annenberg. Sections will sometimes bore you to tears, yet this introductory economics survey is one of the most practical classes offered at the College. Besides knocking out the Social Analysis core and fulfilling a requirement for Economics and Social Studies concentrators, it teaches concepts that will seem so intuitive you’ll be embarrassed by how little you knew before taking the course. Not surprisingly, Ec10 attracts about a third of the freshman class from all walks of Harvard life: future investment bankers, undecided souls who are “thinking about Social Studies,” and, naturally, some stereotypical jocks....

Liberals criticize Ec10 as having a conservative bias and preaching a form of “free-market fundamentalism.” And it’s true that Mankiw—a former economic adviser to George W. Bush—did assign an article entitled “Two Cheers for Sweat Shops.” But hey, that’s economics, baby.

By the way, that article on sweat shops is by the well-known right-winger Nicholas Kristof.