Jun 2, 2009

Economics museums

"If you think an economics museum would be boring, you've probably never lived in Mexico". This is what Hawley writes in today's USA Today, presenting the Museum of Economics in Mexico City. The same applies to Argentina, I guess, as I remember visiting the foreign debt museum there in 2005.

But the one in Mexico looks even more interesting as it is designed for kids. You can play with giant coins, make your own Visa credit cards, design and print your own money or dress up as a trader in a mock stock exchange learning to buy and sell everything from apples to spaceships.
It also seem to offer the right micro-macro balance: in one game "visitors barter for fish and houses as survivors on a desert island. In another game, they are mayors of small Mexican towns, figuring out how to spend city money." "A lesson on production costs is delivered through telephones shaped like sneakers, teddy bears, bananas and a glass of milk."
The museum was founded by the Bank of Mexico to "create a society that makes better decisions". Maybe it should target bankers instead of kids!
ht: Bridge

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