Read this Wall Street Journal article "Artifact Prices Draw Looters" and answer the questions below.
1. Does an increase in the demand for Indian artifacts cause an increase in the quantity supplied of these artifacts?
2. Does an increase in the unemployment rate result in an increase in the supply (i.e., a shift in the supply curve to the right) of Indian artifacts? Discuss the opportunity cost of time.
3. What is the effect of an increase in both the demand and supply of Indian artifacts in the equilibrium prices and quantities?
U.S. News: Artifact Prices Draw Looters --- Despite Crackdown, Thefts of Indian Antiquities Continue West of the Rockies
Author: Scheck, Justin
Publication info: Wall Street Journal [New York, N.Y] 02 Nov 2012: A.3.
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Abstract: Over three months this summer, a group of rock climbers in this tiny Sierra Nevada outpost saw a man digging up what appeared to be Indian artifacts on remote federal land. Martin McAllister, a Montana archaeologist who has been performing damage assessments of looting sites for state and federal agencies for over a decade, said he believes looting is up.
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Full Text: HOPE VALLEY, Calif. Over three months this summer, a group of rock climbers in this tiny Sierra Nevada outpost saw a man digging up what appeared to be Indian artifacts on remote federal land. On several occasions, they confronted the man, and once chased him into the woods. "We said, 'Hey, dude, what you're doing is disrupting nature,'" recalled one of the climbers, Brad Perry. The climbers said they left messages at U.S. Forest Service offices. Agents later found the alleged digger, whom they declined to identify. The man acknowledged taking artifacts, including stone tools, said Rita Ayers-Vollmer, a Forest Service spokeswoman. The investigation is continuing and no charges have been filed, she said. Across the West, authorities are struggling to stop the looting of Indian antiquities. The thefts have continued despite a 2009 federal crackdown that resulted in more than 20 people being indicted in Utah. The case generated headlines due to a large number of charges, as well as the suicides of two defendants and a third man who reportedly was an informant in the case. Steep prices for artifacts and high rural unemployment have made digging for antiquities a popular pastime in places like eastern California, Nevada, and Utah, where deserts have preserved painted pots for thousands of years. Figures on artifact thefts are sketchy, said Todd Swain, a National Park Service investigator who specializes in looting cases. Most incidents never get reported. Federal agencies in the West often have only one or two criminal investigators to cover areas approaching a million square miles. In 2010, the last year for which data are available, the National Park Service tallied about 400 instances of artifact-looting in its parks nationwide, up from fewer than 300 in 2009, Mr. Swain said. The Forest Service in 2010 tallied about 50 incidents, down from about 150 the year before. Mr. Swain said the number of reported incidents can vary widely from year to year, and he estimated that as few as 20% of such thefts are reported. Martin McAllister, a Montana archaeologist who has been performing damage assessments of looting sites for state and federal agencies for over a decade, said he believes looting is up. His business is at an all-time high. "It's worse now than it ever was because the economy is depressed," he said. The looting troubles tribal members, who generally say that Indian artifacts should remain where they are. "This is our identity," said Darrel Cruz, cultural-resources director for the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California. Mr. Cruz grew up a few miles from the Hope Valley site where the climbers found the man taking artifacts. In recent years, his tribe has encountered disturbed graves and stolen petroglyphs, he said. The Hope Valley site was the fourth looting instance Mr. Cruz has seen this year, up from two last year and the largest in his five years as cultural-resources director. Demand for Indian artifacts is strong, experts said. "The market is really incredible," said Terry Baxter, a California dealer who specializes in Western arrowheads, with some buyers paying $10,000 or more for rare ones, though most others sell for far less. Mr. Baxter and other dealers said they are careful not to sell artifacts from federal land and that they refuse questionable items. Mr. Baxter said he turned away a man earlier this year who was trying to sell an Indian skull. Missouri dealer Steve Lee said he declines one or two emailed offers a week to sell him Western arrowheads, out of concern they came from public land. Unlike Mr. Baxter, Mr. Lee said his business, which largely consists of artifacts from east of the Rockies, remains slow. But online outlets that specialize in artifacts make it easy to sell just about anything, creating an incentive to dig. Eric Keefer, an agent with the Bureau of Land Management near Bishop, Calif., said he receives about 10 looting reports a year. A couple of years ago, Mr. Keefer said, he helped investigate human remains that may have been dug up from a grave where other items were taken. One recent case from Mr. Keefer's area involved a man named Norman Starks. Mr. Starks, who is retired, said he likes to take walks around the desert in Lone Pine, Calif., and that he occasionally finds artifacts. "I've been collecting them since I was five or six years old," he said. Mr. Starks said he never digs for them. But in 2003, a federal agent found Mr. Starks digging around Indian graves, Mr. Keefer said. In 2005, the agent again found him digging, Mr. Keefer said. In 2009, Indians reported Mr. Starks was seen trying to unearth artifacts. Mr. Starks said the federal and tribal officials are "liars," a charge they deny. In 2010, a federal archaeologist said he found Mr. Starks digging near an Indian grave on land owned by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Mr. Keefer said. He was tried in California state court for disturbing artifacts. The jury couldn't reach a verdict, and Mr. Starks agreed in a settlement to stay off certain lands. Subscribe to WSJ: Credit: By Justin Scheck
